FRI0229 High Prevalence of Subclinical Ultrasonographic Synovitis in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background Ultrasonography has proved more sensitive than physical examination to detect synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis, so we believe it can be useful to identify subclinical joint involvement in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Objectives To evaluate the presence of synovitis with power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) in IBD patients without clinically evident musculoskeletal disease and to investigate its correlation with IBD variables. Methods Cross-sectional study with prospective recruitment of IBD patients, without clinically overt musculoskeletal signs or symptoms, who attended the Gastroenterology out-patients clinic for follow-up during 2013. Gastroenterological, rheumatological and PDUS evaluation, blind to each other, were performed. Clinical assessment included demographics, comorbidities, IBD characteristics (activity, phenotype, evolution time and clinical subtype), work and sport activities and musculoskeletal clinical examination. PDUS evaluation consisted of the detection of grey scale (GS) synovitis and synovial power Doppler (PD) signal in 44 joints (bilateral sternoclavicular, acromioclavicular, glenohumeral, elbow, carpal, MCP, PIP, knee, ankle and MTP joints) using a LOGIQ7 General Electric machine with a 12-MHz linear array transducer. PDUS variables were scored binary (present/absent) and semiquantitatively. Statistical analysis: continuous variables are expressed as mean ± SD or range and categorical variables as number of cases (%). The associations were evaluated by the Student's t test and Mann-Whitney test for continuous variables and by the χ2 test for categorical ones. Pearson and Spearman correlations of PDUS with clinical and analytical variables were analyzed. The intra-reader agreement for PDUS was estimated in all images obtained. Statistical significance was set at p