Impact of Temporomandibular Joint Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Table 1

Demographic and background data for 33 patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement of rheumatoid arthritis.

		Median	Percentile		% abn	n
			25th	75th
Age	Years	47	41	54		33
Gender	F/M					29/4
Duration
General disease	Years	6	5	11		33
TMJ symptoms	Years	2	1	4		33
Smoking	Yes/no					5/28
Systemic disease activity
Disease activity score (28)	0–10	3.9	3.5	4.9		32
Number of painful regions	0–21	9	8	12		33
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate	mm/hr	40	28	70	85	33
C-reactive protein	mg/L	8	6	11	53	26
Rheumatoid factor	IU/mL	27	25	34	84	26
ACPA					42	26
Thrombocyte particle count	10^9/L	306	246	342	9	33
Medication
NSAID					%	94
DMARD					%	100
Glucocorticoid					%	3
Anti-TNF					%	46

% abn: percentage of observations with positive or abnormal values (when applicable), n: number of observations, M: males, F: females, IU: international units, NSAID: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, DMARD: disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, anti-TNF: biologic drug specifically targeting tumor necrosis factor. The following values were considered abnormal: rheumatoid factor >14 IU, C-reactive protein >4 mg/L, erythrocyte sedimentation rate >20 mm/h, thrombocyte particle count >300 × 10⁹/L, and ACPA >5 U/mL. The disease activity score for 28 joints was assessed at the time of clinical examination.