High-frequency ultrasound evaluation of morphea: Retrospective analytical study

To date, there are no accepted outcome measures to monitor morphea, and consensus on specific monitoring criteria for morphea remains elusive. A few studies have assessed the criterion validity of skin ultrasound in morphea. So, in this study, we approach ultrasound findings in morphea lesions.

This was a retrospective-analytical study conducted between December 2021 and May 2023. Patients were clinically evaluated at a dermatology outpatient clinic and then referred for high-frequency ultrasound (HF-US) evaluation and were selected to be included in this study. The lesions were confirmed by histopathology as well. Sonographic evaluations were performed on the lesion site and the symmetrical uninvolved other side. Dermal thickness and dermal echogenicities were recorded. Statistical analysis of group differences was performed by using the 2-tailed Student t-test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Forty-one morphea lesions in the inflammatory phase of 27 patients were included in the study. The mean dermal thickness of morphea lesions was 1107.97 ± 414.3 and the mean dermal thickness of the control side was 1094.65 ± 331.06, The difference between these two variables was not statistically significant. The mean dermal density of lesions was 49.13 ± 18.97 and the mean dermal density of the control side was 52.22 ± 25.33. The difference between these two variables was not statistically significant.

This study shows that HF-US indicated increasing dermal thickness and reducing the dermal density of the morphea lesions in the inflammatory phase confirmed with the histopathology.