Grading of Ultrasonography in Rheumatoid Arthritis of Wrist and Hand Joints.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the role of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) in the grading of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) wrist and hand joints and correlate it with clinical, laboratory, and radiological data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study recruited 50 patients in a tertiary care hospital. RA activity was assessed by DAS28. MSUS dorsal longitudinal scan was performed on the wrists, MCPs, and PIPS joints using high frequency (18 MHZ) linear transducer. 100 wrists in three different views, 500 MCPs, 500 PIPs were evaluated using the grayscale ultrasound and power Doppler ultrasound semiquantitative scale and scores ranging from 0-3. The results were correlated with clinical, laboratory and radiological data. All patients' wrist and hand joints X-rays were evaluated using the Larsen score. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients (49 females and one male) was 44.58 ± 10.07 years, and their mean disease duration was 16.26 ± 1.07 years. The mean DAS28 was 5.19 ± 0.95. 97.5% of joints had grade I Larsen score, 11.07% of the joints had erosions, 9.2% of the joints had effusions, 23.8% of the joints had synovial thickening, 11.9% of the joints showed PD signals and 3.5% of the joints were accompanied with tenosynovitis. Significant relations (p < 0.05) found among DAS28 and (PD signals, synovial thickening, tenosynovitis, effusion, and Larsen score). A nonsignificant relation (p > 0.05) among DAS28 and erosions detected by MSUS and X-ray. CONCLUSION: MSUS is powerful in the detection of early RA regarding synovitis, joint effusion, tenosynovitis, and bone erosions, which were correlated with clinical and laboratory parameters.

Preoperative Grading of Glioma Using Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI: Relative Cerebral Blood Volume Analysis of Intra-tumoural and Peri-tumoural Tissue.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the usefulness of intra-tumor and peri-tumoral relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) in preoperative glioma grading. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 21 patients with histopathologically confirmed glioma were included. Imaging was achieved on a 1.5T MRI scanner. Dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI was performed using T2* weighted gradient echo-planner imaging (EPI). Multiple regions of interest (ROIs) have been drawn in the hotspots regions, the highest ROI has been selected to represent the rCBV of each intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral regions. Based on histopathology, tumors were subdivided into low grade and high grade. Receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC) of rCBV, of both intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral regions, was performed to find cut-off values between high and low-grade tumors. The resulting sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were calculated. RESULTS: Based on the histopathology, high-grade glioma (HGG) represented 76.2% whereas low-grade glioma (LGG) represented 23.8%. Both intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral rCBV of HGG were significantly higher than those of LGG. A cut-off value >2.9 for intra-tumoral rCBV provided sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 80%, 100%, and 85.7% respectively to differentiate between HGG and LGG. Additionally, the cut-off value >0.7 for peri-tumoral rCBV provided sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 100%, 66.6%, and 90.5% respectively to differentiate between HGG and LGG. CONCLUSION: rCBV of each of intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral rCBV are significantly reliable for the preoperative distinction between HGG and LGG. Combined intra-tumoral and peri-tumoral rCBV provides overall better diagnostic accuracy and helps to decrease the invasive intervention for non-surgical candidates.

Vitamin D status and viral response to therapy in hepatitis C infected children.

AIM: To study the frequency of vitamin D deficiency in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and to evaluate the role of vitamin D supplementation in improving antiviral therapy. METHODS: Sixty-six children aged from 7-14 years (mean ± SD, 11.17±2.293) diagnosed with HCV infection were matched to 28 healthy controls. Serum levels of 25 (OH) D3, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and plasma level of parathormone were measured. Quantitative PCR for HCV was performed Bone density was determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. All cases received conventional therapy, and only 33 patients received vitamin D supplementation. RESULTS: Children with HCV showed significantly increased levels of HCV RNA (P<0.001), parathormone (P<0.01) and decreased vitamin D levels (P<0.05) (33.3% deficient and 43.3% insufficient) compared with controls. Abnormal bone status (Z score -1.98±0.75) was found in ribs, L-spine, pelvis and total body. Cases treated with vitamin D showed significant higher early (P<0.04) and sustained (P<0.05) virological response. There was a high frequency of vitamin D deficiency among the Egyptian HCV children, with significant decrease in bone density. The vitamin D level should be assessed before the start of antiviral treatment with the correction of any detected deficiency. CONCLUSION: Adding vitamin D to conventional Peg/RBV therapy significantly improved the virological response and helped to prevent the risk of emerging bone fragility.