The purpose of this study is to establish the normality of sonographic synovial measures in joints more affected in rheumatoid arthritis patients and establish, in those joints, a sonographic value of synovium predictive of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory, systemic and auto-imune disorder affecting primarily the joints. In RA, inflammatory synovium causes destruction of cartilage, erosion of the adjacent bone and ultimately loss of function of the affected joint. Newer imaging techniques, such as ultrasound (US), have shown promise in evaluation of RA. Many US scoring system have been used to classify and quantify the synovium, effusion, erosion and cartilage for assessing and monitoring AR. However, its use is considered problematical because there are very few data on normal joints and, at this point, there is no clear definition of excess amount of synovium in normal people.

Inclusion Criteria:

• no articular disease (healthy group)
• establish rheumatoid arthritis (RA group)

Exclusion Criteria:

• diabetes
• hypothyroidism- hemophilia
• pregnancy
• previous septic arthritis
• previous articular surgery
• symptomatic osteoarthritis
• no superimposed collagenoses (RA group)

terciary care clinic (rheumatoid arthritis patients) community sample (healthy people)