Ultrasound imaging for the rheumatologist XXIV. Sonographic evaluation of wrist and hand joint and tendon involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune multisystem disorder characterised by frequent musculoskeletal manifestations. Joint involvement in SLE is usually not erosive or destructive but some patients develop hand erosive arthritis or deforming arthropathy of the hand (respectively "rhupus" hand and Jaccoud arthritis). To date, few, studies, evaluated joint and tendon involvement in SLE patients by US. We studied wrist and hand structure, using ultrasound, in 50 patients affected by SLE, detecting inflammatory joint involvement in 80% of then? at the wrist and in 50% at the hand. Tenosynovitis was visualised in 14 patients, while structural damage was present in 12% of the SLE group. Those results reinforce the importance of including musculoskeletal ultrasound in the patient assessment, especially in those cases in which physical examination is not conclusive.