Accuracy of histologic grading of synovial inflammation in temporomandibular joints with internal derangement using Gynther's system.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the system by Gynther et al (J Oral Maxillofac Surg 56:1281, 1998) for histologic grading of synovial inflammation in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in arthroscopically obtained synovial biopsy specimens.

PATIENT AND

METHODS

Thirty-three human TMJ synovial biopsy specimens from patients with internal derangement of the TMJ were evaluated using the system of Gynther et al. The results were compared statistically with the intensity of synovitis seen arthroscopically using Spearman ranked correlation coefficient.

RESULTS

In 2 of the 3 parameters tested, a statistically significant correlation was found between the histologic findings by the system of Gynther et al and arthroscopic findings using the scale of Murakami et al (J Oral Maxillofac Surg 49:1159, 1991)

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that histologic grading of synovial inflammation by the system of Gynther et al has considerable accuracy. However, more investigations are necessary to confirm the results.