Discussion On Clinical Diagnosis Value Of Ultrasound Detecting In Knee Osteoarthritis

Objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the role of ultrasound (US),conventional color (CD) and power Doppler (PD) in the detection of knee osteoarthritis (OA).Patients and Methods : Eighty-three patients(118 knee joints) with osteoarthritis who had clinical signs of knee involvement as well as 61 healthy people as a control group subjects where subjected to full clinical examination and laboratory investigations on the same day of US examination. The knee joints were evaluated with plain radiography,US,color Doppler and power Doppler.Results : 1. A higly significant difference in synovial thickening and cartilage thickness detected by US between OA affected knees and those of controls (p<0.01). 2. The tendency of knee joint cartilage attenuation with age was displayed by ultrasound in control group especially in people older than 60 years. 3. Knee effusion was demonstrasted in 88.14% (104 knee joints) of patients by US while only 3.4% (4 knee joint) by X-ray . 4. Synovial hypertrophy of the knee joint was detected by grey tone ultrasound in 77.97% (92 knee joints) of patients. 5. Synovial vessels were detected by power/color Doppler in 40% (47 knee joints) of patients. 6. Indices of the intrasynovialarterial flow were detected by spectral Doppler in 31.5% (29 knee joints) of patients and the flow pattern was estimated by the Index of resistance (RI). The synovial blood flow was characterized by a Low-speed flow (RI -0.70). 7. Nine(7.63%) cases of mind change and 56(47.46%) cases of moderate change and 53(44.92%) cases of marked change of articular cartilage were detected by real-time high-frequency US. 8. A highly significant positive correlation was detected between synovial thickness and the degree of vascularity detected by CD/PD, and knee effusion. 9. Peripheral osteophytosis was detected by high-frequency US and X-ray in all patients.Conclusion: 1. The high-frequency ultrasound may show a series of pathological changes of articular cartilages in knee osteoarthritis such as coarseness and abrasion and attenuation,so the high-frequency ultrasound may be a diagnostic tool for detecting the pathological changes of articular cartilages. 2. The high-frequency ultrasound may sensitionly detect knee effusion,and thus it can be used as a diagnostic method for knee effusion. 3. The examination of synovitis by the high-frequency Doppler Sonography is qualitative and half-quantitative,the high-frequency Doppler Sonography may be valuable for diagnosis of synovitis. 4. The high-frequency ultrasound may be a examining method for peripheral osteophytosis basing on it' s high sensitivity for detecting osteophyte of lateral margin.