CONDYLAR RESORPTION IN PATIENTS WITH TMD

The objective of this study is to determine the nature of the difference between condyle morphology of osteoarthritic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and non-osteoarthritic TMJ, using 3D surface models constructed from cone-beam CT (CBCT) images. Three-dimensional Shape Correspondence was used to localize and quantify condylar morphological differences of 20 patients with RDC/TMD group III (arthralgia, arthritis, arthrosis) compared to 40 asymptomatic subjects. Three-dimensional models of right and left condyles for each subject were constructed from CBCT images and shape analysis performed using the publicly available SPHARM-PDM software. The right and left condyles were normalized using rigid Procrustes alignment to an overall mean condylar surface per group. The mean differences between groups were compared using the Hotelling T2 analysis with permutation-test derived p-values, corrected for False Discovery Rate. The differences between the group mean surfaces were visualized with color-coded magnitude and difference vectors. The condylar morphology of the TMD group was statistically significantly different from the asymptomatic group (p = 0.05, average surface distance differences of 1.9 mm for the right condyles and 2.3 mm for the left condyles). The average condylar morphology in the TMD patients showed resorption of the anterior surface of the lateral pole and flattening of the articular surface compared to the mean morphology in asymptomatic subjects. The condylar morphology and condylar dimensions of the TMD patients were different, on average, from those of the asymptomatic subjects. The preliminary findings in this cross-sectional study will lead to future investigations to elucidate osteoarthritic changes in TMD and their role in the pathophysiology of TMD. Supported by NIDCR DE017727.