THE TEMPORO MANDIBULAR JOINT IN RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS - CORRELATIONS BETWEEN CLINICAL AND COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY FEATURES

Clinical and CT scan abnormalities of the temporomandibular joint in r heumatoid arthritis have been little studied in the literature. The te mporomandibular joint was examined clinically and by CT scan in 26 pat ients with rheumatoid arthritis and 26 controls. In the rheumatoid art hritis group, 61.2 % of patients had physical signs of temporomandibul ar disease as compared with 42.3 % of the controls. 88.4 % of rheumato id arthritis had erosive or geodic lesions of the temporomandibular jo int by CT scan as compared with 57.6 % of the controls (p < 0.05). The temporomandibular clinical score was not correlated with CT scan scor e in rheumatoid arthritis. CT scan score was correlated with the numbe r of basic drugs used, rheumatoid factor levels and radiological score s of the hands and cervical spine. The authors feel that the only CT s can abnormalities specific to rheumatoid arthritis consist of erosive and geodic lesions of the mandibular condyle, that there is no correla tion between clinical and CT scan abnormalities of the temporomandibul ar joint in rheumatoid arthritis and that the extent of destructive le sions of the temporomandibular joint by CT scan in rheumatoid arthriti s is closely correlated with the severity of the disease.