Radiological cervical spine involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency and the severity of radiological cervical spine involvement in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS: We investigated 165 consecutive unselected patients with RA who fulfilled the revised American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA. All patients had a complete physical and laboratory evaluation. Patients had a radiological evaluation that included hand and wrist radiographs, as well as cervical spine radiographs in anteroposterior, lateral, and lateral in full flexion views. Hand radiographs were evaluated according to the Larsen criteria, while cervical radiographs were evaluated according to Winfield classification.

RESULTS: There were 143 women and 22 men, with a mean age of 59.6 +/- 12.5 and disease duration 12.3 +/- 13.9 years. Positive rheumatoid factor was found in 63.6% of patients. One hundred forty-six patients presented radiological findings related to cervical spine involvement: atlantoaxial subluxations were found in 20.6% and erosions of the odontoid process in 2.4%; none presented vertical subluxation. Subaxial subluxations were found in 43.6%, disc space narrowing at C2-C3, C3-C4, C4-C5 levels in 66.1%, and vertebral plate sclerosis and erosions in 43.6%.

CONCLUSION: Cervical spine radiological involvement is a frequent finding in our patients with RA, but the severity of the disease is rather mild, possibly related to the ethnic background.