Ultrasound Detectable Arthritis

SAN DIEGO — Establishing mandatory competencies for musculoskeletal ultrasound is necessary to improve its use in both rheumatology residency programs and clinical practice, a speaker said at ACR Convergence 2023.

Tenosynovitis detected through power Doppler ultrasound predicts rheumatoid and inflammatory arthritis development in patients with clinically suspect arthralgia, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Imaging should be the preferred choice over palpation in guiding targeted procedures and injections at peripheral and sacroiliac joints, and at structures encompassing peripheral nerves, according to new EULAR “points to consider.”

EULAR has released a list of 23 recommendations — including 21 “mandatory” items — such as blinding, the development of scoring systems and defining target pathologies, for all rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease studies using ultrasound.