Radiological cervical arthritis in populations.

The prevalence of cervical rheumatoid arthritis and its relationship to rheumatoid serum factors and erosive arthritis in peripheral joints has been studied in radiographs of the cervical spine and of the hands and feet drawn from 12 population samples. The changes were graded in accordance with the Atlas of Standard Radiographs of Arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis of the cervical spine (grades 2-4) was observed in 4.1% of males and 4.7% of females aged 15 and over. Prevalence was greatest in those born before 1900, 15% of whom were affected. There was a significant association with the sheep cell agglutination test but not with the bentonite flocculation test, though the latter correlated well with erosive arthritis in the joints of the hands and feet. Arthritis of the cervical spine showed a significant correlation with both seropositive and seronegative erosive arthritis in the peripheral joints. A significantly higher prevalence of cervical arthritis than expected was noted in two population samples, one in Germany and the other in West Africa, though in neither was there a high prevalence of peripheral arthritis. The German population had relatively high antistreptolysin titres. A low prevalence of cervical arthritis was noted in populations in Czechoslovakia and in Arizona. 'Congenital' block vertebra had a prevalence of 0.9% in persons born before 1935, but none was observed in those born since. The figures suggest that environmental influences predisposing to cervical arthritis and block vertebra have changed in the last 40 years.