PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Aurélie Najm AU - Carl Orr AU - Lorna Gallagher AU - Monika Biniecka AU - Emeline Gaigneux AU - Benoit Le Goff AU - Ursula Fearon AU - Douglas J Veale TI - Knee joint synovitis: study of correlations and diagnostic performances of ultrasonography compared with histopathology AID - 10.1136/rmdopen-2017-000616 DP - 2018 Feb 01 TA - RMD Open PG - e000616 VI - 4 IP - 1 4099 - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000616.short 4100 - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000616.full SO - RMD Open2018 Feb 01; 4 AB - Objectives Ultrasonography (US) is a fast, available and low-cost imaging tool used for detecting knee synovitis. Our aims were to assess the relationship between US and histology findings in appraising levels of inflammation and vascularity in the knee joint in subjects with inflammatory arthropathies; to determine whether differences exist in the appraisal between varying knee compartments and to compare US performances compared with gold standard histology for knee synovitis detection.Methods Subjects with actively inflamed knee joint having crystal arthropathies, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis or ostoearthritis were prospectively recruited from rheumatology clinics after giving their written consent between May and October 2015. Study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. The knee was divided into three compartments (medial, lateral, superior). Patients had a knee US followed by a knee arthroscopy with biopsies retrieval from each compartment. Biopsies were blindly scored for lining layer hyperplasia, inflammation, vascularity, CD68 and factor VIII staining. Correlation was determined using the Spearman’s correlation test.Results 26 patients with active arthritis in a knee joint and recent onset of disease were prospectively included. Strong correlations were observed between US synovitis grade and histological inflammation score (r=0.63; P=0.002), US Doppler grade and histological score for vascularity (r=0.68; P<0.001); US measured synovial thickness and lining layer hyperplasia (r=0.61; P=0.002). Moderate correlation was found between US synovitis grade and CD68 score (r=0.49; P=0.02).Conclusion US findings correlate with histological inflammation and vascularity scores in actively inflamed knee joints. US accurately describes knee synovitis.