VERTEBRAL ankylosis in a patient with hereditary chondrocalcinosis: a CHANCE ASSOCIATION?

✍ Scribed by Jerome B. Brem

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 689 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780251016

✦ Synopsis

Reginato has reported cases of peripheral joint ankylosis in hereditary chondrocalcinosis (I). In view of that association, we might suggest that there are certain anatomic as well as clinical similarities between hereditary chondrocalcinosis and ankylosing spondylitis. This report describes the index patient in a family with hereditary chondrocalcinosis. He had cervical and thoracic vertebral ankylosis and pathologic evidence of enthesopathy, but did not have lumbar or sacroiliac joint ankylosis. Although classic ankylosing spondylitis and chondrocalcinosis could have occurred by chance in the same individual, I am unaware that any such case has been reported.

CASE REPORT

On September 27, 1977, an 83-year-old dentist was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, OR, for fever, malaise, and arthritis of the right wrist, elbow, shoulder, and left knee. He had suffered from similar attacks of arthritis in the past and recalled having a rather constant low backache when he was in his 20s and 30s. Since age 43, he had suffered attacks of polyarticular arthritis that involved both proximal and distal joints. By age 60, his back was rigid but not painful. He continued to practice dentistry, although he was bothered by aching in the small joints of his hands, shoulders, neck, and knees (treated successfully with hydrocortisone, colchicine, and, in the 19SOs, a From the