Proximal interphalangeal arthroscintigraphy in rheumatoid arthritis.

Quantitative scintigraphy of proximal interphalangeal joints was performed by a reproducible method using 99m-Technetium in the hands of 40 normal controls and 20 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The range of the mean uptake varied considerably between proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints in normal subjects. The mean uptake over PIP joints was not significantly different either between normal controls and RA patients, nor between those rheumatoid arthritis patients with and those without clinical signs of inflammation in the PIP joints. However, the variation in the PIP counts was significantly greater in the rheumatoid hands than in the normal hands. There was no clear correlation between the technetium uptake and the clinical parameters of inflammation in the PIP joints.