Ultrasound quantitative assessment of ventral finger microvasculopathy in systemic sclerosis with Raynaud’s phenomena: a comparative study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess the finger vascularity of systemic sclerosis patients with Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP-SSc) using various ultrasound techniques.MethodsAll fingers (except thumbs) of 18 RP-SSc patients and 18 controls were imaged at room temperature using four ultrasound vascular imaging techniques. The percent vascular area was quantified by counting blood flow pixels in a 25 mm2square centred at the nail fold for the dorsal side and in 25 mm2and 100 mm2square from the fingertip for the ventral side. The mean vascular intensity was calculated from the corresponding areas for dorsal and ventral sides.ResultsThe percent vascular areas and mean vascular intensities in RP-SSc were significantly lower than those in controls for both dorsal and ventral sides (p<0.01). The mean vascular intensities showed slightly higher area under the curve (AUC) than the percent vascular areas (0.53–0.91 vs 0.53–0.90) regardless of imaging technique and assessment side. For each imaging technique, the ventral side vascularity showed a higher AUC (0.74–0.91) compared with the dorsal side (0.53–0.81). Moreover, ventral side abnormalities were associated with a history of digital ulcers.ConclusionsUltrasound demonstrated potential to quantify finger vascularity of RP-SSc. The ventral side of the fingers showed a higher accuracy in detecting RP-SSc than the dorsal side.

Raynaud phenomenon and microvasculopathy in systemic sclerosis: multi-modality imaging for diagnosis and evaluation

“…Lastly, in a study evaluating 18 patients with SSc and 18 healthy controls, which employed four ultrasound vascular imaging techniques on all fingers except thumbs, vascularity among patients with SSc was significantly lower compared with controls. However, testing the ventral side of the fingers consistently performed better in discriminating between patients with SSc and controls for all techniques [48].…”

“…Power Doppler Ultrasonography before and after cold challenges has been shown to accurately differentiate between primary RP, secondary PR patients, and healthy controls, with a good correlation rate to NVC examination [46,47]. The development of ultra-high frequency transducers permits better evaluation of the peripheral vascular bed of patients with SSc [48]. In a study of 33 patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc and 34 healthy volunteers, using high-resolution Doppler analysis, the former showed significantly slower systolic velocity at the second interdigital artery and a higher distal resistive index (dRI) [49].…”

Artificial Intelligence Algorithms in Nailfold Capillaroscopy Image Analysis: A Systematic Review

“…Impressive results already established when NFC was fused with other modalities such as ultrasound (104,105), doppler sonography (106), laser scanning microscopy(107), and optoacoustic imaging (108,109).…”

A Systematic Review of Aminaphtone from Pathophysiology to Clinical Applications: Focus on New Rheumatological Acquisitions

“…Finally, most clinical efficacy outcomes for Aminaphtone are subjective measures. New tools, such as LASCA and ultrasound quantitative assessment, are being studied to better characterize the vascularity of digital fingers of patients, in particular in the course of SSc, and could be used also to objectively investigate the efficacy of vasodilators/vasoprotector drugs [60].…”