. 2023 Nov 28;54(4):490–504. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05815-2

Table 4.

Advantages and disadvantages of ultrasound imaging in juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Advantages	Disadvantages
• Non-invasiveness • Relatively inexpensive • Lack of exposure to ionizing radiation • No need to sedate children • Possibility to assess several joint regions in a single scanning session • Capability of dynamic and real-time assessment • Potential guidance for corticosteroid injections in joints, tendon sheaths, or synovial bursas • Portability • Rapidity of performance • Ease of repeatability • Visualization of soft tissue inflammation	• Operator dependency • Reliability dependent on sensitivity of US equipment • Not all joints assessable • Inability to assess the whole joint space • Relatively small field of view • Acoustic shadowing from overlying bones • Difficult to carry out in case of joint functional limitation and/or pain • Lack of validated scoring systems to quantify US abnormalities • Difficult to standardize and centralize for clinical trials

Advantages

Disadvantages

• Non-invasiveness

• Relatively inexpensive

• Lack of exposure to ionizing radiation

• No need to sedate children

• Possibility to assess several joint regions in a single scanning session

• Capability of dynamic and real-time assessment

• Potential guidance for corticosteroid injections in joints, tendon sheaths, or synovial bursas

• Portability

• Rapidity of performance

• Ease of repeatability

• Visualization of soft tissue inflammation

• Operator dependency

• Reliability dependent on sensitivity of US equipment

• Not all joints assessable

• Inability to assess the whole joint space

• Relatively small field of view

• Acoustic shadowing from overlying bones

• Difficult to carry out in case of joint functional limitation and/or pain

• Lack of validated scoring systems to quantify US abnormalities

• Difficult to standardize and centralize for clinical trials

US ultrasound