Objective: To present the published data concerning the US assessment of tendon lesions as well as the US metric properties investigated in inflammatory arthritis.
Methods: A systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library was performed. Selection criteria were original articles in the English language reporting US, Doppler, tenosynovitis and other tendon lesions in patients with RA and other inflammatory arthritis. Data extraction focused on the definition and quantification of US-detected tenosynovitis and other tendon abnormalities and the metric properties of US according to the OMERACT filter for evaluating the above tendon lesions.
Results: Thirty-three of 192 identified articles were included in the review. Most articles were case series (42%) or case-control (33%) studies describing hand and/or foot tenosynovitis in RA patients. The majority of older articles used only B-mode, whereas the most recent studies have incorporated Doppler mode. Definition of tenosynovitis or other tendon lesion was provided in 70% of the evaluated studies. Most of the studies (61%) used a binary score for evaluating tendon abnormalities. Concerning the OMERACT filter, 24 (73%) articles dealt with construct validity. The comparator most commonly used was clinical assessment and MRI. There were few studies assessing criterion validity. Some studies evaluated reliability (36%), responsiveness (21%) and feasibility (12%).
Conclusion: US seems a promising tool for evaluating inflammatory tendon lesions. However, further validation is necessary for implementation in clinical practice and trials.