Application of musculoskeletal ultrasound in gouty arthritis

Gout is a representative inflammatory arthritis with an increasing incidence in recent years. Gout may be accompanied by a chronic course in which sodium urate crystals are continuously deposited to form gout nodules if proper uric acid management is not performed after acute symptom onset. In the past, an invasive method was applied to diagnose gout, but the development of various imaging modalities has prompted attempts to diagnose gout with a non-invasive method. Among these, ultrasound examination is a patient-friendly examination, is relatively convenient to perform in an outpatient setting, and can be used for treatment evaluation. Therefore, in this thesis, the ultrasound findings of gout are investigated and applied to actual treatment.