The feasibility of high-resolution ultrasonography and MRI in diagnosing finger lesions

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of both ultrasonography and MRI findings in finger lesions.

This study was carried out on seventy symptomatic patients (53 females and 17 males). Their ages ranged from 6 to 64 years. All patients were referred to the diagnostic radiology department from various outpatient clinics of general, orthopedic, cosmetic surgeries and rheumatology. All patients were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, laboratory investigations for rheumatoid arthritis patients and radiological investigations. Whenever we had a surgical and pathological final diagnosis, it was considered the gold standard of the results. When only ultrasound and MRI were correlated, MRI was considered the gold standard.

In our study, we found that ultrasonography is useful for evaluating a variety of lesions of the finger. Its widespread availability, relatively low cost, and high spatial resolution make it an excellent tool for investigating finger disorders. MR is the best imaging modality for lesion characterization. By systematically using clinical history, lesion location, findings on radiographs and MR imaging features, the radiologist can differentiate between determinate and indeterminate lesions.

We concluded that ultrasonography and MRI are complementary to reach a correct diagnosis in different etiologies of finger lesions.