Abstract
Radiological changes in the cervical spine were investigated among eighty two patients with classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis. Sixty six cases out of eighty two (80.5%) complained of the subjective symptoms such as pain in the neck and so forth.
Thirty four cases out of eighty two (41.5%) were found the objective finding such as limitation of neck rotation and flexion sideway. There are no abnormal neurological signs in this series.
Radiological change of the cervical spine, in the strict sense, were found in sixty five cases of this series (79.3%).
Radiological changes in the atlanto-axial joints, especially anterior subluxation of the atlas on the axis were more commonly observed among the group of the patients with those clinical symptoms.
Rheumatoid changes in the synovial atlanto-axial joint were also confirmed in a autopsy case with classical rheumatoid arthritis which had expired of pulmonary tuberculosis.
