ArticleArchives of rheumatology2026
Cervical Spine Involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Does Joint Erosion Severity Correlate with Instability?
Article in Archives of rheumatology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsAlthough numerous risk factors associated with cervical spine involvement (CSI) have been reported in the literature, the relationship between the severity of peripheral joint erosions and CSI has not yet been investigated. In this study, we aimed to investigate this relationship. MATERIALS AND
methodsAdult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with a disease duration of more than 5 years were enrolled from 2 tertiary rheumatology clinics. Medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Neutral, open-mouth anteroposterior, full flexion, and full extension cervical spine radiographs, along with hand radiographs, were assessed independently by 2 blinded rheumatologists. "RA-type joint involvement (RJI)" was defined as presence of any erosion or joint space narrowing (JSN) as per the Modified Sharp Score (MSS). "Severe joint involvement (SJI)" was defined as presence of any erosion with a score of ≥ 3 points or JSN with a score of ≥ 4 points as per the MSS.
resultsWe enrolled 238 patients, 84.5% of whom were female, and the mean age was 58.1 ± 12.1 years. The frequency of CSI was 19.7% (n = 47), including anterior atlantoaxial subluxation (AAS) (42.3%), posterior AAS (7%), lateral AAS (22.5%), vertical subluxation (11.5%), and subaxial subluxation (12.7%). The CSI-positive group had longer lag time to diagnosis (P = .028), longer disease duration (P = .002), higher rates of RJI (P = .047), SJI (P < .001), and peripheral joint ankylosis (PJA) (P < .001) than CSI-negative group. In multivariate analysis, only PJA remained an independent predictor of CSI (P < .001). In addition, there was no significant difference in the frequency of interstitial lung disease and chronic knee/elbow arthritis between the CSI-positive and CSI-negative groups.
conclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study to identify PJA as an independent risk factor for CSI. Therefore, RA patients having PJA should be carefully screened for CSI. Cite this article as: Pekdiker M, Ketenci S. Cervical spine involvement in rheumatoid arthritis: Does joint erosion severity correlate with instability? Arch Rheumatol. 2026;41(2):100-107.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.