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Is articular pain in rheumatoid arthritis correlated with ultrasound power Doppler findings?

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Abstract

Objective

The study is addressed to determine if there is a correlation between intra-articular power Doppler (PD) and pain symptoms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods

A cross-sectional study of patients with established RA was rolled out. Seventy-two patients with chronic swelling at metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints were consecutively enrolled in the study and divided into two groups (painful and painless). In the painful group, the inclusion criteria were pain in the visual analog scale (VAS), from 0 to 10 cm, of at least 4 cm and 0 in the painless group. All two to five MCP joints, bilaterally, were scanned by ultrasound (US) searching for intra-articular PD presence. Any value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results

Patients in the painful group had longer morning stiffness, worse 28-joint disease activity score (DAS 28), and health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) indexes. There were no association between pain and gray scale (GS) synovitis, odds ratio (OR) = 0.9 (0.6–1.2), p = 0.485; and pain and intra-articular PD, OR = 0.8 (0.6–1.2), p = 0.244.

Conclusion

Intra-articular PD was not correlated with pain symptom in this study.

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Disclosures

None.

Funding

Grants provided by FAPESP 2012/04867-6.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rheumatology Division, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 740, CEP 04023-900, São Paulo, Brazil

    Daniele Freitas Pereira, Ana Leticia Pirozzi de Buosi, Jamil Natour & Rita Nely Vilar Furtado

  2. Clinica Reumatologica, Rheumatology Division, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Jesi, Ancona, Italy

    Marwin Gutierrez, Antonella Draghessi & Walter Grassi

  3. Radiology Division, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Fernando Bernardes Maia Diniz Ferreira

Authors
  1. Daniele Freitas Pereira
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  2. Marwin Gutierrez
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  3. Ana Leticia Pirozzi de Buosi
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  4. Fernando Bernardes Maia Diniz Ferreira
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  5. Antonella Draghessi
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  6. Walter Grassi
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  7. Jamil Natour
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  8. Rita Nely Vilar Furtado
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jamil Natour.

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Pereira, D.F., Gutierrez, M., de Buosi, A.L.P. et al. Is articular pain in rheumatoid arthritis correlated with ultrasound power Doppler findings?. Clin Rheumatol 34, 1975–1979 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-015-2964-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-015-2964-4

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