A follow-up study of the earliest radiological changes in rheumatoid polyarthritis.

After more than 20 years devoted to the search for the earliest demonstrable radiological signs in polyarthritis, the author now offers proof that the very faint and tiny juxta-articular erosions described for the first time in 1963 (Nørgaard, 1963) are the earliest positive signs of rheumatoid polyarthritis. In the follow-up study of 153 cases which showed these fine erosions on the initial X-ray examination, 148 have subsequently had proven polyarthritis confirmed by clinical or radiological methods or both. The fate of the other five is discussed.