[Clinical analysis on the temporomandibular joints of the fifteen patients of rheumatoid arthritis].

It is seemed to be really important, when making a selection on the treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, to gain an insight into progress and activity of the disease. This analysis was taken in order to look upon the clinical symptoms and the radiographic abnormalities of the temporomandibular joints, obtained from fifteen rheumatoid arthritis patients who has visited on our department, since 1974. Ten patients (66.7%) had clinical evidences of temporomandibular joint. The most frequent symptom was pain on movement, followed by disturbances on mouth opening and crepitation. Patients who had been suffering from the disease for a long period offered more frequent clinical evidences. The acute phase symptoms, such as disturbances on mouth opening, swelling and oppressive pain in the preauricular area, was found in one patients. All of the patients showed some radiographic abnormalities. We've devised a criteria on the degree of condylar absorption on the purpose of comparison to the other abnormalities. The degree 1 was found in 3 joints, the degree 2 in 12 joints, the degree 3 in 14 joints, and the degree 4 in 7 joints. An absorption on the articular fossae and the tubercles were well along with this degrees. The higher degree the more frequent of clinical evidences in each joints was disclosed. And the period of the disease was related on the degrees, too. We can expect the bone scintigraphy by using 99mTc-MDP to be a good way for expression of the activity of the disease.