The aim of this study was to evaluate bone metabolic condition in imaging findings of temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) using bone scintigraphy, which has a high sensitivity to bone metabolism, and two bone metabolic markers: 1) pyridinoline cross-linked carboxy-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP) and 2) carboxy-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (PICP) which influence both the formation and absorption of bone.
The subjects were 92 patients (18 male, 74 female, mean age 40.3 ± 18.2 years of age, 112 TMJs) with TMD who underwent bone scintigraphy using
99mTc-MDP and/or had their concentration of bone metabolic markers (ICTP and PICP) measured in synovial lavage fluid by a radioimmunoassay kit using competitive inhibition. Synovial lavage fluid was a mixture of synovial fluid and physiological saline, obtained by irrigation of the superior joint compartment of TMD patients. Sixteen female controls (mean age 42.7 ± 15.7 years of age) with no symptoms of TMD, but who had other diseases and who underwent bone scintigraphy, were selected. The position and configuration of the articular disk of patients with TMD were diagnosed by MRI and/or double contrastarthrography. All patients were examined for morphological bone change of the TMJ by tomography and were evaluated using both a positive ratio and an accumulation ratio (radioactivity counts of TMJ region/radioactivity counts of neck soft tissue region) by bone scintigraphy.
We obtained the following results and conclusions. All the temporomandibular joints with morphological bone change showed an increase in accumulation by bone scintigraphy. Some of the temporomandibular joints without morphological bone change also showed an increase in accumulation. There were no statistically significant differences between disk position, disk configuration and accumulation ratio. Most of the temporomandibular joints, which had an increase in accumulation, showed abnormal findings of the disk. The results of the accumulation ratio and bone metabolic marker in synovial fluid were similar. A strong correlation between both was recognized. It was considered that bone scintigraphy is a useful imaging technique for evaluating bone metabolism of TMD. The analysis of bone metabolic markers is a useful way to obtain information on the bone metabolic condition of TMD, when synovial fluid is collected at the time of surgical treatment.
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