Background/Purpose: The prevalence of psoriasis in children is estimated between 0.5-1% (1), and can be associated with musculoskeletal involvement, althought the prevalence and typology of such involvement is unknown. (2)

Over the last years ultrasound associated with Doppler (PDUS) has become an important tool for evaluating joint involvement in children. Several studies have shown the high sensitivity of this technique for detecting joint involvement, as well as high acceptability, due to the lack of radiation or of sedation (3).

To the best to our knowledge this is the first study aiming to evaluate the prevalence of ultrasound involvement of joints and entheses in children with PsO.

Methods: Observational cross-sectional study aiming at evaluating 150 consecutive children (<16 years) with skin PsO. For each child a standardized clinical and ultrasound evaluation of joint and entheses was performed at the following bilateral sites:  a) Entheses: quadriceps tendon, proximal and distal patellar ligament, Achilles tendon, plantar fascia and extensor elbow tendon), b) joints: metacarpophalangeal, proximal and distal interphalangeal, wrist, elbow, knee, ankle, and metatarsophalangeal. The presence of spontaneous pain was also recorded. Ultrasound was performed by an independent assessor, blinded to clinical assessment and symptoms.

Results: 49 patients were included until now. Thirteen patients (26%) presented some painful joint or enthesis, 27 patients (55%) had family history of PsO and none of them had family history of psoriatic arthritis. Demographic and clinical characteristics are shown in Table1, whilst PDUS findings in Table 2.

Conclusion: Presence of ultrasound abnormalities was higher in the symptomatic group and the most prevalent inflammatory ultrasound findings were synovitis and enthesitis. Ultrasound may be useful to detect subclinical involvement in children with PsO and musculoskeletal symptoms.

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics.

Table 2 PDUS Findings.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-of-ultrasound-findings-suggestive-of-inflammatory-arthritis-in-children-with-skin-psoriasis-childechopso/