Can ultrasound help to overcome uncertainty in clinical joint assessment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis?
Authors' conclusion
Presence of MSUS synovitis carries a clinically meaningful risk of disease recurrence in these joints.
Study context
- Population
- Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients with questionable presence of active arthritis and controls (JIA and healthy children)481 joints of 138 JIA patients
- Participants
- 99 / 253 / 129 / 105
- Exposure
- Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) vs clinical examination of joints in JIA, related to arthritis relapse
- Q-jointsn = 99
- Clinically inactive jointsn = 253
- Clinically active jointsn = 129
- Healthy controlsn = 105reference
- Outcome
- Correlation of MSUS and clinical examination results and relation to arthritis relapse rate
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
MSUS features of active disease (synovitis) · study entry
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Q-joints | Clinically inactive joints |
|---|---|---|
| Joint relapse · 15-month follow-up | 22% | 12% |
- Joint relapse — Joints with subclinical synovitis relapsed more frequently than MSUS inactive ones
- p<0.001
Joint relapse · 15-month follow-up
- Relapse rate higher in MSUS-active Q-joints (19/23, 82%) than in MSUS-active clinically inactive joints (16/31, 52%)
- MSUS synovial hypertrophy the main relapse predictor in multivariate analysis
- Ankle and knee joints relapsed most frequently
Original publication
Can ultrasound help to overcome uncertainty in clinical joint assessment in juvenile idiopathic arthritis? Clin Exp Rheumatol. Published 25 April 2022. doi:10.
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