[Temporomandibular joint and rheumatoid polyarthritis. Correlations between clinical and tomodensitometric...

Clinical and CT scan abnormalities of the temporomandibular joint in rheumatoid arthritis have been little studied in the literature. The temporomandibular joint was examined clinically and by CT scan in 26 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 26 controls. In the rheumatoid arthritis group, 61.2% of patients had physical signs of temporomandibular disease as compared with 42.3% of the controls. 88.4% of rheumatoid arthritis had erosive or geodic lesions of the temporomandibular joint by CT scan as compared with 57.6% of the controls (p less than 0.05). The temporomandibular clinical score was not correlated with CT scan score in rheumatoid arthritis. CT scan score was correlated with the number of basic drugs used, rheumatoid factor levels and radiological scores of the hands and cervical spine. The authors feel that the only CT scan abnormalities specific to rheumatoid arthritis consist of erosive and geodic lesions of the mandibular condyle, that there is no correlation between clinical and CT scan abnormalities of the temporomandibular joint in rheumatoid arthritis and that the extent of destructive lesions of the temporomandibular joint by CT scan in rheumatoid arthritis is closely correlated with the severity of the disease.