Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Eur J Radiol. 2021 Jan;134:109421. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2020.109421. Epub 2020 Nov 20.
To evaluate the use of combined thermal and ultrasound imaging to assess joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
22-joint (bilateral hands) thermography and ultrasonography were performed. For each patient, the MAX, MIN and AVG represent the sum of the temperature differences with a control temperature, for the respective maximum (Tmax), minimum (Tmin) and average (Tavg) temperatures at the joints. MAX (PD), MIN (PD) and AVG (PD) represent the results of combined thermal imaging with a patient's total ultrasound power Doppler (PD) joint inflammation score (Total PD) (when Total PD > median score, MAX, MIN and AVG was multiplied by a factor of 2, otherwise MAX (PD), MIN (PD) and AVG (PD) remained the same as the MAX, MIN and AVG). Pearson correlation and linear regression were used to assess correlation and characterize relationships of imaging parameters with the 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28).
In this cross-sectional study, 814 joints were examined in 37 adult RA patients (75.7 % female, 75.7 % Chinese; mean DAS28, 4.43). Among the imaging parameters, only MAX (PD) and AVG (PD) correlated significantly with DAS28 (correlation coefficient (95 % CI): MAX (PD), 0.393 (0.079, 0.636), P = 0.016; AVG (PD): 0.376 (0.060, 0.624), P = 0.022). Similarly, only MAX (PD) and AVG (PD) demonstrated a statistically significant relationship with DAS28 (regression coefficient (95 % CI): MAX (PD), 0.009 (0.002, 0.015), P = 0.016; AVG (PD), 0.011 (0.002, 0.020), P = 0.022).
Novel use of combined thermal and ultrasound imaging in RA shows superiority to either imaging alone in terms of correlation with DAS28.
评估联合热成像和超声成像评估类风湿关节炎（RA）关节炎症的应用。
对 22 个关节（双侧手部）进行热成像和超声检查。对于每位患者，MAX、MIN 和 AVG 分别代表与对照温度的温差总和，代表关节的最大（Tmax）、最小（Tmin）和平均（Tavg）温度。MAX（PD）、MIN（PD）和 AVG（PD）代表与患者的总超声能量多普勒（PD）关节炎症评分（Total PD）的联合热成像结果（当 Total PD＞中位数评分时，MAX、MIN 和 AVG 乘以 2 的因子，否则 MAX（PD）、MIN（PD）和 AVG（PD）与 MAX、MIN 和 AVG 相同）。采用 Pearson 相关和线性回归评估影像学参数与 28 关节疾病活动评分（DAS28）的相关性，并描述其关系。
在这项横断面研究中，37 名成年 RA 患者的 814 个关节接受了检查（75.7%为女性，75.7%为中国人；平均 DAS28 为 4.43）。在影像学参数中，仅 MAX（PD）和 AVG（PD）与 DAS28 显著相关（相关系数（95%CI）：MAX（PD），0.393（0.079，0.636），P=0.016；AVG（PD）：0.376（0.060，0.624），P=0.022）。同样，仅 MAX（PD）和 AVG（PD）与 DAS28 呈统计学显著关系（回归系数（95%CI）：MAX（PD），0.009（0.002，0.015），P=0.016；AVG（PD），0.011（0.002，0.020），P=0.022）。
在 RA 中，联合使用热成像和超声成像具有优于单独使用任何一种成像方式的优势，与 DAS28 的相关性更强。
