Disease relevance of Zygapophyseal Joint

• Intraarticular injection of betamethasone is not effective therapy for pain in the cervical zygapophyseal joints after a whiplash injury [1].
• Atlantoaxial (C1-C2) facet joint osteoarthritis: a distinctive clinical syndrome [2].
• Septic arthritis of the C1-C2 lateral facet joint and torticollis: pseudo-Grisel's syndrome [3].
• PURPOSE: To determine the imaging characteristics of lumbar facet joint synovial cysts after percutaneous treatment with steroid injections and distention of the cyst and to correlate these findings with the clinical outcome [4].
• Eighty-six patients with refractory chronic low back pain were randomly assigned to receive either facet joint injection or facet nerve block, using local anaesthetic and steroid [5].

High impact information on Zygapophyseal Joint

• The spectrum of atlantoaxial facet joint involvement in rheumatoid arthritis [6].
• RESULTS: Control subjects were not significantly different from patients with fractures in age, weight, number of current illnesses, number of prescribed medications, number of pain medications, ratings of lumbar spine degenerative disc disease, or lumbar spine facet joint arthritis [7].
• Epidural steroid and facet joint injections had the highest volume and reimbursement during this time period and were performed almost exclusively by nonradiologists (predominantly anesthesiologists) [8].
• In seven cats, anaesthetized with alpha-chloralose, bradykinin (BK) of concentrations between 12 and 50 microg was injected into the facet joint between C1 and C2 [9].
• CONCLUSION: Image-guided percutaneous steroid injections are often effective in the treatment of lumbar facet joint synovial cysts and may result in complete regression of the cyst [4].

Chemical compound and disease context of Zygapophyseal Joint

• Cervicogenic headache: anesthetic blockades of cervical nerves (C2-C5) and facet joint (C2/C3) [10].
• There is a significantly reduced coronal dimension of the facet joint in degenerative spondylolisthesis patients compared with spinal stenosis and normal patients (P < 0.01) [11].
• STUDY DESIGN: Prospective randomized study to compare the efficacy of facet joint injection with lidocaine and facet joint injection with saline in two groups of patients with low back pain, with and without clinical criteria that were determined in a previous study to implicate the facet joint as the primary source of the pain [12].
• STUDY DESIGN: This report illustrates a case of cervical myelopathy caused by degenerative changes of the facet joints in which calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals were found histologically [13].
• Technetium polyphosphate scanning techniques have shown an active process in the facet joints of the spondylolisthesis group with degenerative disease [14].

Biological context of Zygapophyseal Joint

• The maximum range of motion between two adjacent vertebrae without soft tissues was measured from C1-C2 down to L5-S and factors such as rotation, lateral bending, extension, and flexion, during surface contact movement of the facet joints, were investigated [15].

Anatomical context of Zygapophyseal Joint

• In the present study, to determine the sensory pathway from L5-6 facet joint, we placed the fluorescent carbocyanine dye, DiI, in the L5-6 facet joint, and examined the paravertebral sympathetic trunks and ganglia bilaterally [16].
• CONCLUSIONS: In long-term hemodialysis patients, cauda equina compression may develop as the consequence of beta 2 microglobulin amyloid deposition in lumbar intervertebral discs, facet joints, and ligaments [17].
• Liu et al reported detailed external dimensions and facet joint surface morphologies on a total of three C1 vertebrae [18].
• Arthritides and enthesopathies such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, synovial cysts of the facet joint, calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition or hydroxyapatite deposition, and ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament or ligamentum flavum may lead to narrowing of the spinal canal [19].
• Four groups were assessed: (1) patients undergoing spinal anesthesia using Bupivacaine for lower limb surgery, (2) spinal Bupivacaine anesthesia without subsequent surgery, (3) local facet joint infiltration using Bupivacaine, and (4) general anesthesia for lower limb surgery without Bupivacaine application [20].

Associations of Zygapophyseal Joint with chemical compounds

• When evaluating the C2/C3 facet joint injection, one has to take possible leakage of anesthetic agent from the joint into consideration, since the third occipital nerve which runs close to the facet joint may be anesthetized through the leakage [10].
• The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution of referred pain from the cervical zygapophyseal joints (C0/1 to C7/Th1) and the cervical dorsal rami (C3 to C7) [21].
• Localization of substance P and neurofilament immunoreactive fibers in the lumbar facet joint capsule and supraspinous ligament of the rabbit [22].
• The present study suggests that the change in the orientation of the superior articular process, from the coronal to the sagittal plane (sagittalisation), occurs due to the change in the direction of weight transmission through zygapophyseal joints at the thoracolumbar junction [23].
• The effect of lidocaine injection into the facet joint and subperiosteal muscle detachment on the electromyographic response were studied [24].

Gene context of Zygapophyseal Joint

• In the FOP patient group, characteristic anomalies, including large posterior elements, tall narrow vertebral bodies,and fusion of the facet joints between C2 and C7, were observed [25].
• At T12, frequency depended on the orientation of the zygapophyseal joints of T11-12 which determined the range of rotation [26].
• METHODS: Tissue samples of ligamentum flavum (n = 32), facet joint capsule (n = 20), intervertebral disc (n = 15), and spine roots (n = 8) were immunostained with specific antibodies to protein gene product 9.5 (a panneuronal marker), SNS/PN3, and NaN/SNS2 [27].
• C1-C2 lateral facet joint involvement is common in RA, correlates with disease severity generally and specifically with that in the cervical spine, and, when severe, causes nonreducible rotational tilt of the patient's head [6].
• Facet arthrograms in patients with lumbar spondylolyses show spread of contrast medium through pars interarticularis defects into the adjacent ipsilateral facet joint space and across the midline into the contralateral joint space [28].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Zygapophyseal Joint

• Under fluoroscopic control, the zygapophyseal joints from C0/1 to C7/Th1 were stimulated by the injection of contrast medium and while electrical stimulation of the cervical zygapophyseal dorsal rami at segments C3 to C7 was performed during facet denervation [21].
• Arthrography was performed during steroid injection in 14 patients (22 joints) with noninflammatory conditions of the cervical facet joints [29].
• Twenty-three patients with severe, longterm (22 years, range 8-36) rheumatoid arthritis were evaluated for rheumatoid changes in the atlantoaxial facet joints using a panoramic zonography program [30].
• Using ELISA and CLEIA methods, joint cartilage and synovial tissues were harvested during surgery from the facet joint at the responsible upper levels to measure IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, and IL-6 in individual tissues [31].
• Spinal levels were marked on the subject's skin overlying the facet joints from C1 to C7 bilaterally and the motion segments were then marked alphabetically with 'A' corresponding to C1-2.Kappa coefficients (K) were calculated to determine the validity of motion palpation to detect the congenitally fused segments as the 'most hypomobile' segments [32].

References