Musculoskeletal ultrasound in gout.

Abstract

The article presents a pictorial literature review on musculoskeletal ultrasound in gout, which is the most common cause of inflammatory arthropathy in adults. Nowadays, among imaging modalities, ultrasound provides the best capabilities for gout diagnosing and monitoring by revealing of monosodium urate deposits in various joint structures, assessing the presence and severity of synovial inflammation, including for dynamical evaluation on urate-lowering therapy. The main ultrasound features of gout (double contour sign, tophi, aggregates and erosions) are described according to the current clinical guidelines. Knowing of these features provides the correct interpretation of ultrasound findings for timely diagnosis and differential diagnosis of gouty arthropathy, and dynamical assessment on therapy.