The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of ultrasound on adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. Adjuvant arthritis was induced in 26 female Sprauge-Dawley rats by the subcutaneous injection of a single dose of .1 mL of Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA) (1 mg of Mycobacterium Butyricum suspended in .1 paraffin oil) into the right hind paw. After confirming inflammatory edema and arthritis in the paw 2 weeks later, the arthritic rats were divided into 3 groups, i.e., a control group, a pulsed ultrasound group (Group A), and a continuous ultrasound group (Group B) with 8 rats placed in each group. The rats in Group A were treated with pulsed ultrasound at 1 MHz frequency with .5 intensity in 1 : 4 mode for 3 minutes. The rats in Group B were treated with continuous ultrasound at 1 MHz frequency with 2 intensity in the continuous mode for 3 minutes. The ultrasound treatment was done in the left and right ankles for 2 weeks. Clinical, radiographic and histopathologic findings were then evaluated before and after treatment and yielded the following results. 1. No significant difference was present in body weight between the control group and the treated groups. 2. A statistically significant decrease in the edema of the paw was seen in the rats in Group A that was treated with pulsed ultrasound by 26~29 days after the treatment started (p<.05). 3. According to radiological examination, Group A showed the lowest score in arthritis scale which means it showed a tendency to suppress arthritic inflammation of the left and right hind paws. However, no statistically significant difference was present in the score between the control group, Group A and Group B. 4. According to histopathologic findings, the degree of infiltration by inflammatory cells and hypertrophy of the synovium were less in Group A compared with the control group and Group B. The results of the study show that rats that were treated with the pulsed ultrasound effectively suppressed adjuvant arthritis. However, more effort is needed to objectively prove the effectiveness of ultrasound by developing more sensitive testing methods that could quantitatively evaluate the treatment effects of acute rheumatoid arthritis and by trying out different ultrasound treatment methods.

• 이동진(청주성모병원 재활의학과 물리치료실) | Lee Dong-jin