Relationship between finger and wrist deformities in rheumatoid arthritis.

Ulnar deviation of fingers in rheumatoid arthritis is known to be very frequently associated with the radial deviation of the hand. The present study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that there is a significant correlation between the position of the wrist and metacarpophalangeal angulation in common rheumatoid hand deformities. Measurements were carried out on standard radiographs of the hands from two comparative groups: 50 adult patients (100 hands) with classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis and the control group of 40 adults (80 hands) suffering from no rheumatoid arthritis but coming for routine check up relating to some degenerative diseases. The results showed a statistically significant relationship between finger and wrist deformities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis but not in normal controls.