Does joint position affect US findings in inflammatory arthritis?

Does joint position affect US findings in inflammatory arthritis?

OBJECTIVE Musculoskeletal US is being increasingly used for the assessment of synovitis, although questions remain about its reliability. One potential factor affecting reliability is the lack of consensus of image acquisition methods such as using different joint positions. This may have an implication on the reproducibility of studies that use US as an outcome measure. The aim of this study w...

Joint counts in inflammatory arthritis.

OBJECTIVES Counting the number of tender and swollen joints is an important aspect of assessing patients with an inflammatory arthritis. We provide a comprehensive overview of joint counts in inflammatory arthritis. This spans how they are undertaken, their use in clinical and research settings, their limitations and standardisation and who can perform them. METHODS We reviewed the literature...

Chronic Extremity Joint Pain–Suspected Inflammatory Arthritis

Pathological Findings of Osteoarthritis in Sternoclavicular Joint

Background: The sternoclavicular joint (SCJ) is the only synovial articulation between the upper extremity and the trunk. This joint is one of the most frequently used joints, so osteoarthritis (OA) should be very common. However, there are few studies about OA in this joint. Methods: In this study, 48 sternoclavicular joints from the left and right joints of 23 cases and two left joints from t...

Why does chronic inflammatory joint disease persist?

Inflammation is a beneficial host response to tissue damage. Most episodes of inflammation resolve spontaneously and do not persist. However, in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as in a number of other chronic inflammatory diseases, the inflammatory response persists and a stable inflammatory infiltrate accumulates in the joint. What drives this persistence and the relative contribution of infiltrati...