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Arthritis Ultrasound
Reviewed By:
Louise Chang,
SOURCES: 2009 Medical Reference from Medstar. Ralf Thiele, MD, Rheumatologist, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Narrator:
Joe Buggie is a master woodcarver…so it hurt when rheumatoid arthritis struck.
Joe Buggie, Patient:
All the woodcarving I did was by hand with mallets and gouges and, I just couldn't do that anymore; it was too painful.
Narrator:
Joe's doctor ordered an M-R-I to help with the diagnosis. But Joe has a heart defibrillator and pacemaker and needed a different imaging tool… ultrasound.
Ralf Thiele, MD, Rheumatologist, University of Rochester Medical Center:
We use it to assess inflamed or swollen joints, to tell, does the patient have rheumatoid arthritis or does the patient have gout?
Narrator:
Doctor Thiele (TEE luh) says ultrasound is a must for arthritis care because x-rays can't tell the whole story.
Ralf Thiele, MD, Rheumatologist, University of Rochester Medical Center:
The x-ray only allows us to look at the bone itself, and we cannot really see the soft tissues around the bone, and we cannot see any active inflammation inside the joints.
Narrator:
The ultrasound hand piece glides painlessly across gel, sending sounds waves into the tissue.
Ralf Thiele, MD, Rheumatologist, University of Rochester Medical Center:
And then the transducer picks up the reflection of the sound waves and creates an image on the computer screen and then you can see what is going on inside the joint.
Narrator:
Many times physical exams and lab tests don't reveal hidden inflammation.
Ralf Thiele, MD, Rheumatologist, University of Rochester Medical Center:
When we use the ultrasound and the doppler ultrasound, we find that these tissues are still highly inflamed and the patient is not on optimal treatment yet.
Narrator:
For Joe, the ultrasound helped the doctor guide a needle right into his shoulder for a pain-relieving injection.
Joe Buggie, Patient:
We were able to see just where the needle went into the shoulder and where it was relative to the inflammation from the arthritis.
Narrator:
Improving his quality of life with a sound treatment. For WebMD, I'm Sandee LaMotte.
