Radiographic and joint count findings of the hand in rheumatoid arthritis. related and unrelated findings

Abstract

Radiographic and physical joint count findings of the hands and wrists of 148 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were analyzed in a cross‐sectional study. Quantitative radiographic scores for joint space narrowing, erosion, and malalignment were correlated highly with joint count scores for limitation of motion and deformity, and were correlated at considerably lower levels with joint swelling scores. Radiographic scores, however, were not correlated at all with joint count tenderness scores. That 2 of the most widely used indices of RA disease activity, radiographic erosion scores and joint count scores for tenderness, were independent of one another at a selected timepoint, should be considered in the design of clinical trials and long‐term observation of patients with RA.

Early rheumatoid arthritis —onset, course, and outcome over 2 years

“…The latter also reported more radiographic changes in the dominant hand which was not confirmed in the present study nor by Fuchs et al [24].…”

“…The modified index showed the same properties as the original one but in addition a significant correlation with the joint damage score was obtained. A connection between limitation of motion scores and radiographic findings has previously been observed [23,24].…”

Reply

“…Yelin, Meenan, and Nevitt in 1980 (14) indicated that demographic and functional measures were more significant than radiographic measures in determining work disability, a finding confirmed in our own studies (15). Although we regard radiographs as being of great value in monitoring disease and have studied radiographic progression extensively (8,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21), functional status is a far more statistically and clinically significant predictor of work disability (15) …”

Measures of activity and damage in rheumatoid arthritis: Depiction of changes and prediction of mortality over five years

“…Cross-sectional data from the baseline evaluation of these patients have been presented in previous reports concerning the joint count (50,51); radiographs (34,35,50,52,53); rheumatoid factor (35); grip strength, walk time, and button time (47); and self-report questionnaire data concerning ADL difficulty (36), pain (49), and helplessness (39,40). These reports include further details concerning methods used for data collection and data management.…”