[Findings on the saddle and multangulum-naviculare joints in erosive polyarthritis]

The x-rays of 110 patients with erosive Heberden-Bouchard arthrosis and the x-rays of 104 patients with non-erosive Heberden-Bouchard arthrosis were compared in order to determine the frequency and the severity of arthrotic changes in the thumb-saddle and the multangulum-navicular joints. In erosive Heberden-Bouchard arthrosis we found more characteristic arthrotic changes than in the non-erosive form. The more characteristic the erosive changes of the finger joints, the more extended the changes were in the thumb-saddle and the multangulum-navicular joints. Erosions of the carpal joints do occur during an erosive Heberdandan-Bouchard arthrosis, but seem to be very rare.