Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Hand and Wrist Tendons in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Introduction: To evaluate hand and wrist tendons involve-ment in rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA) and to determine the factors that are potentially associated with more frequent tendon involvement. Material and Methods: Thirty patients with RA and 20 healthy controls matched by age, sex and body mass index (BMI) were subjected to: Full history, thorough clinical examination, radiographic assessment and ultrasound assess-ment of tendons at the level of fingers and wrists. This study was performed on patients attended the rheumatology immunology outpatient clinic, internal medicine department of Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital, Cairo University, during (2011- 2013). Results: Tenosynovitis/tendonitis was found in at least one tendon in 15 (50%) of 30 patients. Tendon damage was found in at least one tendon in 6 (20%) patients. Global disease activity and local joint synovitis were significantly related to inflammation of hand wrist tendons (p-value 0.01). Multivariate analysis of other factors that are potentially associated with more frequent tendon involvement in rheumatoid arthritis patients, revealed that a positive anti-CCP was the only variable associated (p=0.049) with the tendon inflammation. Conclusion: Considering that ultrasound can be time-consuming, the identification of the most commonly affected sites may facilitate a more focused US examination of the target tendons in RA. Also, in this study we tried to evaluate the factors that are potentially associated with more frequent tendon involvement in RA patients.