Reliability of diagnostic imaging for degenerative diseases with osseous changes in the temporomandibular joint with special emphasis on subchondral cyst: methodological issue

Excerpt

I was interested to read the paper by Nozawa M and colleagues published in the April 2020 issue of Oral Radiol [1]. The authors aimed to clarify the reliabilities of four characteristic appearances, subchondral cyst, erosion, generalized sclerosis, and osteophyte, for evaluation of degenerative diseases with osseous changes in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) using panoramic TMJ projection imaging and computed tomography (CT), and to investigate the imaging features of these modalities for subchondral cyst with reference to its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features. The reliabilities (κ values) of panoramic TMJ projection and CT images were determined by three radiologists for each characteristic appearance of TMJ osseous changes in 146 condyles. The features of cyst-like areas on CT images with agreement among the three radiologists were investigated for size, location, and continuity with the joint space together with MRI signal intensity and surrounding edema-like lesions. They reported that panoramic TMJ projection images showed moderate and substantial agreements for erosion and osteophyte evaluations, respectively; while CT images showed substantial agreements for subchondral cyst, erosion, and osteophyte evaluations. …