Diagnosis of osteoarthritis

Differential diagnosis of osteoarthritis

Ensuring effective therapy for osteoarthritis and relapses of the disease largely depends on the use of standardized approaches to its diagnosis and differential diagnosis.

Diagnosis of osteoporosis in osteoarthritis

The improvement of specific and sensitive biochemical markers reflecting the overall rate of bone formation and resorption in recent years has significantly improved the noninvasive assessment of bone metabolism in various metabolic bone diseases. As is known, biochemical markers are divided into markers of bone formation and bone resorption.

Clinical diagnosis of osteoarthritis

Significant advances in understanding the pathophysiology and evolution of osteoarthritis have led not only to improved diagnosis of the disease but also to a reassessment of the methodology and metrology of clinical trials in osteoarthritis. Clinical diagnosis of osteoarthritis is difficult.

Laboratory diagnosis of osteoarthritis

In most cases, patients with osteoarthritis do not have changes in blood and urine tests, except for cases of synovitis with significant effusion, when an increase in ESR, hypergammaglobulinemia, an increase in the level of acute phase indicators - CRP, fibrinogen, etc. may occur.

Shoulder ultrasound for osteoarthritis

The shoulder joint is one of the most convenient for ultrasound, especially because many pathological changes occur in its soft tissues. Due to the low information content of the X-ray method in reflecting soft tissue changes, ultrasound, along with MRI, has become the leading method in the study of the shoulder joint.

Hip ultrasound for osteoarthritis

Although the leading method for detecting coxarthrosis is MRI, ultrasound has advantages in detecting small effusions in the hip joint (even less than 1 ml), as well as disorders of the periarticular soft tissues in the early stages of osteoarthritis.

Ultrasound of knee joints in osteoarthritis

As is known, radiography in most cases allows to determine the damage of the knee joint when bone elements are involved in the pathological process. Often these changes are already irreversible, treatment of such patients is difficult.

Diagnosis of osteoarthritis: radioisotope scintigraphy and thermography

Radioisotope scintigraphy of joints is performed using osteotropic radiopharmaceuticals (pyrophosphate, phosphone, labeled with 99mTc). These drugs actively accumulate in areas of active bone and collagen metabolism.

Diagnosis of osteoarthritis: ultrasound (ultrasound) of the joints

The use of ultrasound examination (sonography) in rheumatology is a relatively new and promising direction. In the last decade, the ultrasound examination (US) technique has become widespread as a visualization technique for examining patients with rheumatic joint diseases, as well as for monitoring treatment.

MRI of joint components in osteoarthritis

MRI provides objective and quantitative measurements of subtle, undetectable morphological and structural changes in various joint tissues over time and is therefore a more reliable and easily reproducible method that helps monitor the progression of osteoarthritis.

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