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At the quadrangular joint (QAJ) of the carpus, a rare bony protuberance called carpal boss (CB) may occur. This bone abnormality may be due to osteophytes development or os styloideum. Symptomatic patients may complain pain, swelling, and restrictions in hand motion. These symptoms result from joint degenerative‐inflammatory changes, development of ganglion cyst/bursitis, or tendons pathology. Correct diagnosis and appropriate management can be achieved through high‐resolution ultrasonography (HR‐US). The purpose of this review is to define the pathology spectrum around and within the QAJ in CB. The role of HR‐US is highlighted and the standard technique for the QAJ assessment is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) is a method to speed up acquisition of quantitative MRI data. However, MRF does not usually produce contrast‐weighted images that are required by radiologists, limiting reachable total scan time improvement. Contrast synthesis from MRF could significantly decrease the imaging time. Purpose: To improve clinical utility of MRF by synthesizing contrast‐weighted MR images from the quantitative data provided by MRF, using U‐nets that were trained for the synthesis task utilizing L1‐ and perceptual loss functions, and their combinations. Study Type: Retrospective. Population: Knee joint MRI data from 184 subjects from Northern Finland 1986 Birth Cohort (ages 33–35, gender distribution not available). Field Strength and Sequence: A 3 T, multislice‐MRF, proton density (PD)‐weighted 3D‐SPACE (sampling perfection with application optimized contrasts using different flip angle evolution), fat‐saturated T2‐weighted 3D‐space, water‐excited double echo steady state (DESS). Assessment: Data were divided into training, validation, test, and radiologist's assessment sets in the following way: 136 subjects to training, 3 for validation, 3 for testing, and 42 for radiologist's assessment. The synthetic and target images were evaluated using 5‐point Likert scale by two musculoskeletal radiologists blinded and with quantitative error metrics. Statistical Tests: Friedman's test accompanied with post hoc Wilcoxon signed‐rank test and intraclass correlation coefficient. The statistical cutoff P <0.05 adjusted by Bonferroni correction as necessary was utilized. Results: The networks trained in the study could synthesize conventional images with high image quality (Likert scores 3–4 on a 5‐point scale). Qualitatively, the best synthetic images were produced with combination of L1‐ and perceptual loss functions and perceptual loss alone, while L1‐loss alone led to significantly poorer image quality (Likert scores below 3). The interreader and intrareader agreement were high (0.80 and 0.92, respectively) and significant. However, quantitative image quality metrics indicated best performance for the pure L1‐loss. Data Conclusion: Synthesizing high‐quality contrast‐weighted images from MRF data using deep learning is feasible. However, more studies are needed to validate the diagnostic accuracy of these synthetic images. Evidence Level: 4. Technical Efficacy: Stage 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To determine the diagnostic performance of ultrasonography (US) for evaluation of the ankle joint osteoarthritic (OA) changes. Cone‐beam computed tomography (CT) was used as the gold standard and US performance was compared with conventional radiography (CR). As a secondary aim, associations between the imaging findings and ankle symptoms were assessed. Methods: US was performed to 51 patients with ankle OA. Every patient had prior ankle CR and underwent cone‐beam CT during the same day as US examination. On US, effusion/synovitis, osteophytes, talar cartilage damage, and tenosynovitis were evaluated. Comparison to respective imaging findings on CR and cone‐beam CT was then performed. Single radiologist blinded to other modalities assessed all the imaging studies. Symptoms questionnaire, the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), was available for 48 patients. Results: US detected effusion/synovitis of the talocrural joint with 45% sensitivity and 90% specificity. For the detection of anterior talocrural osteophytes, US sensitivity was 78% and specificity 79%. For the medial talocrural osteophytes, they were 39 and 83%, and for the lateral talocrural osteophytes 54 and 100%, respectively. Considering cartilage damage of the talus, US yielded a low sensitivity of 18% and high specificity of 97%. Overall, the performance of US was only moderate and comparable to CR. The imaging findings showed only weak associations with ankle symptoms. Conclusions: The ability of US to detect ankle OA is only moderate. Interestingly, performance of CR also remained moderate. The associations between imaging findings and WOMAC score seem to be weak in ankle OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess whether ultrasonographic (US) findings associate with clinical findings in severe knee osteoarthritis (OA). Association of US findings with side-of-knee pain and inter-reader agreement of knee US were also evaluated.Methods: One-hundred-two patients (in total 123 knees) with severe knee OA were recruited for this cross-sectional study. US was performed by a single observer, and on 53 knees by two independent observers to assess inter-reader reliability. Preoperative clinical data was available for 69 knees. Cutoff values were applied to dichotomize US and clinical findings. The Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, and prevalence- and bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK) were applied for statistical analyses.Results: Seven of 99 associations tested were statistically significant. Associations were observed between range of flexion and lateral femoral (P = .009) and tibial (P = .001) osteophytes, mediolateral instability and damage to the lateral femoral cartilage (P = .014) and damage to the lateral meniscus (P = .031), and alignment and damage to the lateral femoral cartilage (P < .001), lateral tibial osteophytes (P = .037), and damage to the lateral meniscus (P < .001). A strong association was observed between medial-sided pain and same-sided cartilage damage and osteophytes (P < .001). That inter-reader agreement was excellent on the medial side of the knee joint (PABAK = 0.811-0.887).Conclusions: US findings show a rather poor association with clinical OA findings. Inter-reader agreement of knee US is excellent on the medial side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]