eprintid: 10067954 rev_number: 37 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/06/79/54 datestamp: 2019-02-19 11:23:31 lastmod: 2021-09-21 22:14:25 status_changed: 2019-06-05 09:15:03 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Ciurtin, C creators_name: Jones, A creators_name: Brown, G creators_name: Sin, F creators_name: Raine, C creators_name: Manson, J creators_name: Giles, I title: Real benefits of ultrasound evaluation of hand and foot synovitis for better characterisation of the disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis ispublished: inpress subjects: UCH divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C10 divisions: D17 divisions: G90 keywords: musculoskeletal ultrasound; rheumatoid arthritis; Power Doppler note: © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract: OBJECTIVE: Optimal management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) depends on accurate evaluation of disease activity. Foot synovitis is not included in the most used RA outcome measure (DAS-28 score). The aim of this study was to investigate how ultrasound (MSK-US) examination of hand and feet correlate with DAS-28 score. We also explored whether performing MSK-US assessments of hands alone compared to hands and feet underestimates the disease activity in RA. METHODS: This is a real-life cross-sectional study of 101 patients (51 with RA and 50 with other musculoskeletal conditions) with inflammatory small joint pain, who underwent MSK-US examination of hands and feet. RESULTS: SK-US detected hand synovitis was found in 18/51 (35.3 %) RA patients and 16/50 (32%) of those with other musculoskeletal conditions (P=0.96), while foot synovitis was detected in 18/51 (35.3%) and 12/50 (24%) patients, respectively (P=0.78). DAS-28 did not correlate with any of the US outcome measures in patients with RA. Six out of 13 (46.1%) RA patients in remission, 7/14 (50%) with low disease activity and 18/32 (56.2%) with moderate disease activity (according to DAS-28 definition) had active synovitis as assessed by the MSK-US examination of their hands and feet. MSK-US detected synovitis led to treatment escalation in 26/51 (51%) RA patients. CONCLUSION: This study emphasises that MSK-US examination of hands and feet has led to optimised management of the majority of RA patients, which would have not been possible otherwise, because of the lack of correlation between DAS-28 assessment and MSK-US outcomes. date: 2019-04-26 date_type: published publisher: Springer Verlag official_url: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-019-06187-8 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Journal Article verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1628458 doi: 10.1007/s00330-019-06187-8 language_elements: English lyricists_name: Ciurtin, Coziana lyricists_name: Giles, Ian lyricists_name: Jones, Alexis lyricists_name: Raine, Charles lyricists_id: CCIUR23 lyricists_id: IGILE39 lyricists_id: ANJON28 lyricists_id: CRAIN11 actors_name: Novi, Maya actors_id: MNOVI52 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: European Radiology issn: 0938-7994 citation: Ciurtin, C; Jones, A; Brown, G; Sin, F; Raine, C; Manson, J; Giles, I; (2019) Real benefits of ultrasound evaluation of hand and foot synovitis for better characterisation of the disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis. European Radiology 10.1007/s00330-019-06187-8 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-019-06187-8>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10067954/10/Ciurtin_Real%20benefits%20of%20ultrasound%20evaluation%20of%20hand%20and%20foot%20synovitis%20for%20better%20characterisation%20of%20the%20disease%20activity%20in%20rheumatoid%20arthritis_AOP.pdf