Mediolateral diameters of condyles in patients with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Aim: rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory progressive disease that can lead to ankylosis and deformity of the joints. It can also affect young people as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), an inflammatory joint disease of unknown etiology that occurs before the age of 16, with higher incidence in females and lasting more than 6 weeks. Among the affected joints there is the temporomandibular joint too. The aim of this work is to evaluate the difference in size between healthy and diseased mediolateral condylar diameters in children with JIA. Methods: the CBCTs of 50 children, 40 girls and 10 boys between 5 and 16 years old, were analyzed through the 3Diagnosys program. The mediolateral diameters of the right an condyles were analyzed and the difference in size between healthy and pathological ones was evaluated. Results: the minimum diameter difference found was 1 mm and the maximum was 5 mm. A mean difference between healthy and pathological mediolateral diameters of 1.2 mm was observed. Differences were more evident during the child’s growth phase, between the ages of 11 and 16. There was no correlation with sex and the age of onset of the disease. Conclusion: condyles affected by JIA are smaller in size than healthy ones and an increase in the difference between mediolateral diameters of healthy vs pathological condyles was found at the patients’ growth phase. Differences seem to be independent of sex and age of onset of the disease.