Correlation between musculoskeletal ultrasound signs of gouty arthritis and disease activity

Gouty arthritis is an extremely painful condition that involves small joints and causes tissue stiffness and joint dysfunction in patients. Musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) offers significant advantages over conventional examinations such as X-ray, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in obtaining images of bones and soft tissues. Here, we analyzed the correlation between musculoskeletal ultrasound signs of gouty arthritis and disease activity. Eighty-nine patients with gouty arthritis who were diagnosed and treated in Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, University of South China, Hengyang, China, between November 2019 and December 2021 were involved in this retrospective research. The patients were devided into Group H (DAS>3.2, n=41) and Group L (2.6<DAS=3.2, n=48) according to the disease activity scores (DASs). All patients underwent musculoskeletal ultrasound and were assessed for disease activity. Pearson analysis was employed to analyze the correlation between musculoskeletal ultrasound manifestations and disease activity. Patients with moderate to high disease activity showed significantly higher musculoskeletal ultrasound scores and DAS results than those with low disease activity (P <0.05). Synovial hyperplasia score, blood flow signal score, joint effusion score, bone erosion score, and total musculoskeletal ultrasound score were all positively correlated with disease activity (r=0.811, 0.814, 0.837, 0.788, 0.976, all P <0.05). Gouty arthritis musculoskeletal ultrasound findings are positively correlated with disease activity. Thus, the manifestations of musculoskeletal ultrasound demonstrate a good potential to provide informative evidence for the assessment of disease activity in patients with gouty arthritis.