OBJECTIVES To quantify the extent of inflammation in psoriatic dactylitis and to examine the relationship between clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in both tender and non-tender dactylitis. METHODS Seventeen patients with psoriatic dactylitis underwent clinical assessment for 6 months after change of treatment, usually to methotrexate. Measures of dactylitis included the Leed...

AIM To describe dactylitis in a large cohort of patients with psoriatic arthritis followed prospectively in a specialist clinic, and identify whether it is associated with a worse prognosis. METHODS Between 1979 and 1999, 537 patients were registered in the psoriatic arthritis clinic and entered onto a longitudinal database. Patients were followed prospectively at six to 12 month intervals ac...

Background Dactylitis (sausage digit) is one of the most commonly reported features of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), the second most common inflammatory arthritis after rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It has been hypothesised that dactylitis is a functional enthesitis at the proximal interphalangeal joints (hands and feet), causing multiple pathologies to varying levels of severity. Dactylitis results ...

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood erythrocytes responsible for delivering oxygen throughout the body. This is the most commonly inherited blood disorder. One of the most widespread manifestations of SCD is painful vaso-occlusive crises and osteomyelitis. Dactylitis or hand-foot syndrome is the first clinical sign of SCD among chi...

At previous annual meetings of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), members resolved to develop dactylitis and enthesitis ultrasound research projects. Sonography can depict many anatomic alterations in the digits of patients with dactylitis and can also study vascularity of these tissues noninvasively. At the 2012 GRAPPA meeting, the ultrasound w...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the risk factors associated with dactylitis in gout. METHODS The questionnaires of 73 consecutive gouty patients, diagnosed according to the ACR criteria, were reviewed. They were consecutively screened for the presence of dactylitis. RESULTS Seven out of 73 (9.6%) patients showed dactylitis. They had (1) longer disease duration, (2) a higher number of involved join...

OBJECTIVE Dactylitis is a hallmark of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) where flexor tenosynovitis is common. This study explored the microanatomical basis of dactylitis using high-resolution MRI (hrMRI) to visualise the small entheses around the digits. METHODS Twelve patients with psoriatic dactylitis (4 fingers, 8 toes), and 10 healthy volunteers (6 fingers, 4 toes) had hrMRI of the digits using a...