Pathology of the cervical spine in rheumatoid arthritis: a controlled study of 44 spines.

Cervical spines (with occiputs) of 44 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were compared with 44 control spines from patients without RA, matched for sex and age. There were six severe and seven slight atlanto-axial dislocations (both horizontal and vertical, two of which had been treated surgically) in the RA group and none in the control group. Ankylosis, synchondrosis, syndesmosis, bone erosions, and redness of synovial tissue in the atlanto-axial, atlanto-occipital and cervical intervertebral joints were more frequent in the RA group than in the control spines. The lesions permitting the best discrimination between the RA and control groups were used to calculate an overall score for the whole cervical spine. Sixteen of the 44 RA patients scored higher than the highest control value; only nine scored lower than the median control score. A higher score than the average value found for the RA spines was obtained by the male patients, the patients with seropositivity or subcutaneous nodules, the patients treated with corticosteroids, the patients who died in the Department of Rheumatology, and those whose death was related to the RA itself or to the treatment given.