• Yunpei Zhu, Ping Sui, Cong Wang, Hui Wang, and Zhihong Wen.
• Ultrasound Department of The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Feb 5; 100 (5): e24417e24417.

BackgroundContrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) refers to a technique that uses contrast medium to strengthen the echo of backscatter, which can significantly improve the resolution, sensitivity and specificity of ultrasound diagnosis. As a quantitative imaging examination of blood flow signals, CEUS has allowed detection of synovial microvascularization in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the results of these studies have been contradictory. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the value of CEUS in the activity of RA disease.MethodsWe will search PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and CNKI from their inception to the December 20, 2020, without restrictions of language and publication status. Two investigators will independently carry out searching literature records, scanning titles and abstracts, full texts, collecting data, and assessing risk of bias. This study will only include high quality clinical cohort or case control studies. Statistical analysis was performed by using the Review Manager version 5.3 and the STATA version 14.0 (Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA) softwares.ResultsThis systematic review will determine the value of CEUS in RA activity scores.ConclusionThe results of this study will provide a useful basis for high-quality CEUS to evaluate RA activity score.Systematic Review RegistrationINPLASY2020120125.Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

29 keywords...

hide…