Resumen de Ultrasound tenosynovitis: A differential feature of patients with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis

Santiago Ruta, Einer Sanchez Prado, Facundo Salvatori, Juan Arguello, Darío Aguerre, Sebastián Magri, Rodrigo Nicolás García Salinas

• Objective To identify differential features between patients with seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

  Method Prospective cohort study, including patients who were admitted for polyarthralgia. At baseline was performed: laboratory studies, X-rays of hands and feet, ultrasound of both hands with power Doppler technique, clinical data and clinimetry. In subsequent visits the definitive diagnosis of RA was established or not. It was considered as seronegative RA when patients were negative for both RF and ACPAs.

  Results 746 patients were included, of which 128 (17.1%) ended with a final diagnosis of RA. Of these 128 patients, 87 (67.9%) were seropositive RA, while 41 (32%) were seronegative RA.

  The only feature that showed significant differences was the presence of tenosynovitis detected by ultrasound with a positive power Doppler signal, 13.7% of the patients with seropositive RA vs 41.6% of the patients with seronegative RA (p = 0.0028).

  Conclusion The only differential feature of patients with seronegative RA was the higher proportion of tenosynovitis detected by ultrasound.