Usefulness of ultrasound in clinical decision-making in rheumatology clinical practice: A single-center longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective

The purpose of the present study is to identify the extent to which it affects clinical decisions in a single-centre observational retrospective study.

Method

The results of 801 requests and 1174 consecutive individual ultrasound examinations performed over 10 months were analysed.

Results

The most frequent indication was diagnostic assistance (39%) followed by assessment of inflammatory activity (34%). By topography, the hand was the most frequently studied region (51%), followed by the foot (18.1%). Of all requests, 67% had an impact on decision-making. The impact on clinical decision-making was associated with a shorter waiting time for the evaluation of the results, being the greatest in those ultrasound scans performed on demand on the same day of the request. In 73% of bilateral ultrasound studies, findings in one of the joints exemplified the overall result reported.

Conclusions

Rheumatological musculoskeletal ultrasound has proven to be a useful decision-making technique, the greater the impact of which is seen the shorter the waiting time before it is performed.