Roentgen manifestations of psoriatic arthritis.

Psoriatic arthritis, as commonly understood, is an arthritis affecting patients with long-standing psoriasis. The joint manifestations predominantly involve the hands and usually are associated with psoriatic changes in the nails. The term psoriatic arthritis has been the source of much controversy since the condition was described by Bourdillon (2) in 1888. The discussion centers about whether psoriatic arthritis is an entity in itself or merely represents the association of psoriasis with rheumatoid arthritis. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a two-group classification of the concurrence of psoriasis and arthritis on the basis of the roentgen findings in 15 patients. The background for much of the controversy concerning psoriatic arthritis possibly stems from the study by Dawson and Tyson (5) who, in 1,000 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, found the incidence of psoriasis to be 2.6 per cent, as compared with only 0.3 per cent in 1,000 cases of osteoarthritis. The significance of these figures app...