Cotnparative study of Somatosensory Evoked ' Potentials to Computed Ton1.ography in early detection of cervical myelopathy in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inilammatmy arthritis, affecting about one percent of the general population worldwide. Although RA is properly considered a disease of the joints, it is important to recognize that it can exhibit a variety of extra-articular manifestations. These manifestations clearly show that RA has features of a systemic disease that is capable of involving a variety of major organ system. It has been determined that the principal histologic changes in RA are characterized by a chronic inflammatory infiltrative process that involves the synovial joints of the cervical spine and the surrounding connective tissue structures

Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) are small changes in the on­ going background electrical activity of the CNS in response to some external event. Potentials recorded from the scalp after non-painful electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves was specifically considered to be attributed to the activity of the dorsal column system and le1nniscal fibers. It is now widely accepted that Nl3 abnormalities reflect a dysfunction of cervical dorsal hom. Somatosensory evoked potentials are unlikely to replace clinical sensory examination as a routine screening procedure, but appear to be more sensitive to dorsal column involvement as well as being a more objective test.

Investigators have studied thoroughly (SEP) in cervical spondylotic myelopathy, but much lower studies had been conducted in RA.