Arthrosonography Of Hip Andknee Joints In Juvenilerheumatoid Arthritis

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is the most frequent chronic arthritis inchildren ( Cassidy and Petty 2000) .Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is often self-limiting; about60% of patients reach adulthood with no active synovitis or functionallimitation. However, many patients experience detrimental effects,including joint deformity and destruction, growth abnormalities andretardation and osteoporosis, resulting in pain, impaired psychologicalhealth or difficulty in daily living. The course of disease is unpredictableand fluctuating. (Packhant and Hall 2002).Musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) has become an establishedimaging technique for the diagnosis and follow up of patients withrheumatic diseases. (Carotti et al ., 2002 ). This has been made possiblethrough technological improvements, resulting in faster computers andhigher frequency transducers. US is most commonly used in the assessmentof soft tissue disease or detection of fluid collection and can also be use dtovisualize other structures, such as cartilage and bone surfaces (Grassi et al., 2005). Owing to the better axial and lateral resolution of US, even minutebone surface abnormalities may be imaged. Thus destructive and/orreparative/hypertrophic changes on the bone surface may e seen before they are apparent on plain x rays or even magnetic resonance imaging(Backizaus et al ., 1999).