Natural Course of Cervical Spine Lesions in Rheumatoid Arthritis

A progressive pattern of the upper cervical subluxations was clarified. That is, upper cervical lesions progressed from reducible anterior atlantoaxial subluxation to irreducible anterior atlantoaxial subluxation with vertical subluxation. This extent of progression was different with the rheumatoid arthritis subset, which was also related to the development of subaxial subluxation. The most aggressive arthritis classification, a subset with mutilating disease, had the more severe subluxation in both upper and subaxial cervical spine.