To determine wrist and hand involvement in black South African patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Larsen scoring of the wrist and hand was done in 75 patients. The mean finger score was 9.67 (range 0 - 100) on the left hand and 10.3 (range 0 - 100) on the right. Scores for the wrists were 2.5 (range 0 - 5) for the left and 2.7 (range 0 - 5) for the right.
Finger and thumb involvement were considerably less in the South African black population than in other series consisting mainly of white patients.