Ultrasonography protocol
PD
US evaluations were performed by a rheumatologist experienced in US (RST) at baseline and at 3 months follow up. The duration of each US examination was approximately 30–45 min. The sonographer was blinded with respect to group allocation at baseline but not at follow up and was aware of the clinical results at both timepoints. Brightness mode (B-mode) and Power Doppler (PD) sonography were performed at 34 mandatory joints (bilateral metacarpo-phalangeal 1–5, radio-carpal, inter-carpal, radio-ulnar, knees, talo-crural, subtalar, talo-navicular, metatarso-phalangeal 1–5) with the Norwegian ultrasonographic atlas [