clinico-pathological study on seronegative arthropathies

ABSTRACT

Fifty patients with a seronegative arthropathy were evaluated. 40 of them had no apparent associated primary disease [idiopathic], 5 with bilharzial arthropathy, 3 with ankylosing spondylitis and 2 with Reiter's syndrome. They were 40 males [60%] with a mean age of 29.4 years and 20 females [40%] with a mean age 29.5 years. The mean duration of the disease was 2.25 years. All the patients were examined clinically and radiologically with a histopathologic study of some enthesopathic specimens. Peripheral arthritis was present in 60% patients, while 40% had arthralgia. The knee and the sacroilii were the highly affected joints. All the patients had enthesopathic signs, where tenderness at the insertion of the planter aponeurosis and Achillis tendon was highly observed. All the patients shared the same radiological abnormalities of periosteal reaction, marginal irregularity, erosions, calcification, sclerosis and spurs. Radiological calcaneal abnormalities were highly associated with enthesopathic signs. Histopathological enthesopathic changes were comparable in all the patients. The results indicated that striking similarities existed between different entities of the seronegative arthropathy groups