The cervical spine involvement in patients with psoriatic arthritis

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a systemic disease and cervical spine can be affected. The data regarding cervical spondylitis are very rare and diverse in literarture. The aim of study was to assess the prevalence of cervical spine involvement in patients with PsA. Between totally 41 patients with PsA we confirmed the incidence of 68% (29 patients) with symptomatic cervical spine disease and 29% (12 patients) with radiological evidence of inflammatory involvement. The most frequent radiological findings were apophyseal joint changes, rarely ligamentous calcification and syndesmophytes. Only one patient had subaxial subluxation. The most common type of PsA was axial disease with or without peripheral arthritis (46%) and the least common was oligoarthritis (22%). There was no statistically significant difference between any type of PsA and cervical involvement. CONCLUSION: inflammatory cervical spine changes are not common radiographic finding in patients with PsA and apophyseal joint affection is the most common radiologic sign.