JOURNAL ARTICLE
REVIEW
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

A systematic review of ultrasonography in osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND: Ultrasonography has been increasingly utilised to aid the understanding and management of rheumatic conditions. In recent years there has been a focus on the validity and utility of ultrasonography in demonstrating joint pathology, although this has largely focused on inflammatory arthritis.

AIMS: To undertake a systematic review of the published literature evaluating ultrasonography as an assessment tool in osteoarthritis.

METHODS: Medline and Pubmed were searched to identify original manuscripts, published before June 2008, utilising ultrasonography to assess the joints of cohorts of subjects with osteoarthritis. Data were extracted from manuscripts meeting the inclusion criteria, with a particular focus on the pathology imaged, the definitions used, scoring systems and their metric properties.

RESULTS: Forty-seven studies were identified that utilised ultrasonography to assess structural pathology in osteoarthritis. Doppler function was only assessed in 10 studies and contrast agents in one. There was heterogeneity with regard to the pathology examined, the definition of pathology, quantification and the reporting of these factors. There was also a lack of construct and criterion validity and data demonstrating reliability and sensitivity to change.

CONCLUSIONS: Whereas there is increasing evidence of the validity of ultrasonography in detecting structural pathology in inflammatory arthritis, more work is required to develop standardised definitions of pathology and to demonstrate the validity of ultrasonography in osteoarthritis.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app