Acromegalic axial arthropathy: a clinical case-control study.

Arthropathy is the major cause of morbidity in acromegaly. To feature the spinal involvement, 54 patients with active acromegaly (27 men, 27 women; age range, 21-69 yr) and 54 sex-, age-, and body mass index-matched healthy controls were enrolled in this observational analytical prospective case-control study. A questionnaire to describe onset, duration, and severity of articular symptoms; rheumatological examination, including vertebral and chest mobility, Schober test, thorax expansion, and axial radiological study; and IGF-I, GH, insulin, and glucose level measurement (baseline and after an oral glucose tolerance test) was used to investigate the prevalence of arthropathy and correlate these findings with hormonal parameters. Axial arthropathy was found in 28 patients (52%) and 12 controls (22%; chi(2) = 8.9; P = 0.003). In detail, spinal mobility was reduced in 30 patients (56%) and 10 controls (18%; chi(2) = 14.3; P < 0.0001), thoracic cage was involved in six patients (11%), alterations of spinal profile were observed in 37 patients (68%) and 15 controls (28%; chi(2) = 16.3; P < 0.0001), and increased L2 vertebra diameters were observed in 34 patients (63%) and none of the controls (chi(2) = 46.7; P < 0.0001). Narrowing and widening of L2-L3 disk space were found in 20 (37%) and seven (13%) patients, respectively. Features of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) were found in 11 patients (20%) and none of the controls (chi(2) = 10.1; P < 0.001). Disease duration was correlated with vertebral body height (P = 0.001) or intervertebral space height (P = 0.02), and lumbar mobility with thorax expansion (P = 0.004); DISH severity was correlated with basal (P = 0.04) and peak (P = 0.01) glucose levels after glucose load. In conclusion, chronic GH and IGF-I excess typically affects the axial skeleton with development of severe alterations of spine morphology and function until features of DISH occur. An early diagnosis of acromegaly is mandatory to reduce the severity of spine abnormalities as they were significantly higher in patients with longer disease duration.

Is the involvement of the distal interphalangeal joint in psoriatic patients related to nail psoriasis?

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between onychopathy and distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint involvement in psoriatic patients. Twenty-five consecutive unselected, unrelated patients with psoriatic onychopathy and 25 consecutive unselected, unrelated patients with psoriatic arthritis without onychopathy, were enrolled in the study. X-ray films of the hands were taken to identify DIP arthritic involvement and/or bone changes of the distal phalanx, which were categorized into five classes (0: no lesions; 1: tuftal minimal erosions; 2: tuftal bone resorption; 3: tuftal periosteal osteitis; 4: overlap of erosive and osteitic changes). Ten psoriatic patients with onychopathy and 8 without showed DIP arthritis, with no statistical differences in this distribution ( p=0.556). Bone changes of the distal phalanx were found in all 25 psoriatic patients with onychopathy and in 18 without. The distribution of patients in different categories of involvement of the distal phalanx showed that patients without onychopathy were markedly distributed in the categories with no or minimal lesions, whereas patients with onychopathy had structural changes prevailing included in categories with more severe bone changes (osteitis and overlap of erosive and osteitic changes) ( p=0.002). Onychopathic patients with DIP arthritis were older than those without ( p<0.0001) and showed a longer duration of onychopathy ( p<0.0001). Although the occurrence of DIP arthritis seems to depend on the duration of nail involvement, no statistical difference has been found in the distribution of DIP arthritis in psoriatic patients with or without onychopathy. In contrast, a topographical association between bone changes of the distal phalanx and dystrophy of the adjacent nail may be advanced.

[Osteoarticular scintigraphy in comparison with clinical evidence]. / Scintigrafia osteoarticolare a confronto con l'obiettività clinica.

Bone scintigraphy is a technique which is often resorted to in diagnostic rheumatology. There are few data on the effective relevance of bone scintigraphy in the evaluation of chronic inflammatory diseases of the joints. The aim of this study was to compare the results of bone scintigraphy with clinical evidence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. Seventy-five patients were submitted to total body bone scintigraphy (44 rheumatoid arthritis, 31 osteoarthritis). The nuclear medicine specialist indicated the list of joints showing uptake. For the same patients a rheumatologist indicated the number of affected joints. The laboratory and clinical data were recorded. The patients were first stratified according to the prevalence of the clinical evidence and scintigraphic uptake. The distribution was found to be not significant. Only 5.3% of patients showed no uptake. Thirty-three patients had no clinical evidence of disease; among these, 30 showed joint uptake. Considering only the patients with clinical evidence, 97.6% showed joint uptake. These results were confirmed even when the data were analyzed by sex, disease and therapy. Considering the patients with clinical evidence, the uptake/clinical ratio did not show any significant correlation. The number of joints with clinical evidence correlated with the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The number of joints showing uptake correlated only with age. In conclusion, on average, scintigraphy, performed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, highlights a significantly higher number of joints involved as compared to what would be expected on the basis of clinical evaluation. It remains to be defined whether this is an overestimation related to the characteristics of the scan or whether it is sign of a higher sensitivity in highlighting the site of inflammation. Against the latter hypothesis is the absence of correlation with the inflammatory indexes.

Clinical and genetic aspects of psoriatic arthritis "sine psoriasis".

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the clinical pattern of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) sine psoriasis. METHODS: Fifty-seven patients (31 men, 26 women, mean age 46.32 +/- 14.12 yrs) with undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (SpA) were studied. Two subsets were defined: (1) 21 patients with familial psoriasis (12 men, 9 women, mean age 49.29 +/- 14.17 yrs); (2) 36 patients without familial psoriasis (19 men, 17 women, mean age 44.58 +/- 14.00 yrs). The prevalence of the following clinical variables was evaluated: low back pain, enthesopathy, dactylitis, distal interphalangeal (DIP) arthritis, spinal involvement, and discitis. In all patients the following HLA haplotypes were tested: B7, B13, B17, B18, B27, B38, Cw6, and DR7. RESULTS: Dactylitis and DIP arthritis were markedly present in the articular subset with familial psoriasis (p < 0.0001) that also showed a high frequency rate of HLA-Cw6 (p < 0.0001 vs controls and patients without familial psoriasis). HLA-B27 was markedly frequent in patients without familial psoriasis (p < 0.0001 vs controls and p = 0.019 vs patients with familial psoriasis). In addition, in patients with familial psoriasis the log-linear model showed that the presence of HLA-Cw6 was related to the presence of DIP arthritis as well as dactylitis (likelihood ratio chi-square change of 5.891 and p = 0.015). CONCLUSION: A subset of patients with PsA "sine psoriasis" is identified by the occurrence of a SpA with dactylitis and/or DIP arthritis, presence of HLA-Cw6, and familial psoriasis in first or second-degree relatives.

Dietary calcium intake and serum vitamin D are major determinants of bone mass variations in women. A longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Bone mineral density (BMD) is one of the main determinants in the pathogenesis of fractures. However, data on factors predicting longitudinal variations in BMD are still limited and incomplete. Such data would be of great importance in order to better focus prevention strategies in both the clinical setting and at the population level. The aim of the study was to investigate the predictive value of both serological and questionnaire variables for bone mass variations in healthy women participating in a population-based longitudinal study carried out in Napoli, Italy. METHODS: High completion rate (85.2%) and adequate sample size were obtained: 139 women (45 to 79 years of age) were examined at study entry and then again after two years (24 +/- 2 months) following the same protocol. They underwent medical examination, questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, blood sampling and urine collection. BMD was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) at the lumbar spine (L1-L4) and femoral neck. Data analysis included calculation of the percent variation in BMD in the 2-year period. Longitudinal data underwent stepwise analysis for a global evaluation of mutual interactions between independent variables. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that dietary and serum calcium, and serum 25(OH)vitamin D are the only independent determinants of BMD variations at the lumbar and femoral level, respectively. While the pharmacological significance of calcium and vitamin D in the therapy of established osteoporosis is still controversial, the present longitudinal data evidence their role as essential nutrients in determining the natural history of BMD variations.