[Role of ultrasound in microcrystalline arthritis]

Ultrasound is a new imaging technique that allows accurately visualize normal and pathological musculoskeletal structures and provide real-time information on the vascular flow. There are a number of ultrasound elemental lesions that alone or in combination are characteristics of gout and chondrocalcinosis. Gout ultrasound is proving to be valid in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease, both in acute as in the chronic and even in asymptomatic hyperuricemia and it is probably the most reliable technique for assessing the size and reduction of tophy. In chondrocalcinosis ultrasound is also proving a superior diagnostic value to other imaging techniques and possibly in the future may be used to monitoring treatment response.