PMID: 19927781Nov 26, 2009Paper

Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of the cervical spine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Report of 30 cases

La Tunisie médicale
Lilia Daoud, Samir Kochbati

Abstract

To investigate by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging the occurence of cervical spine (CS) involvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Thirty consecutive unselected patients, who fulfilled the revised American College of rheumatology criteria for RA, were investigated. All patients had a complete physical and laboratory evaluation. Radiological evaluation included hand and wrist x-rays, as well as CS radiographs in anteroposterior, lateral and lateral in full flexion views. In addition, MR (Spin Echo T2-weighted saggital scans, palin and contrast enhanced T1-weighted sagittal and axial scans) was performed in all patients. Hand x-rays were evaluated according to the Sharp score. Disease activity was assessed by disease activity score for 28 joint indices (DAS-28). There were 25 females and 5 males with a mean age of 46.6 years (23-67) and mean disease duration 9 years (1-22). Twenty three patients (76.6%) had positive IgM rheumatoid factor (RF). Five patients presented clinical findings, mainly cervical pain and stiffness of CS (four with positive and one with negative MR), while radiological findings of CS involvement were found in seven patients (23%). Five patients (16.6%) presented MR findings of CS involvement (anterior...Continue Reading

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