Articular Chondrocalcinosis in a Hospital Population: An Australian Experience

Abstract

A group of hospital patients aged 55 years or over (53 men, 74 women) were screened for articular chondrocalcinosis (ACC) with high-resolution radiographs of knees, wrists, hand and pelvis. Two men (4%) aged 79 and 86 years had ACC involving knees, wrists and symphysis pubis. Both had clinical joint disease and radiological osteoarthritis (OA). Eighteen women (24%) had ACC with sites affected including the knees (89%), wrists (39%) and symphysis pubis (44%). Metabolic screening did not reveal any predisposing factors in patients with ACC. Symptoms and signs of joint disease were not significantly more common in women with ACC compared to those without ACC, and 44% of those with knee calcification were clinically asymptomatic and had no evidence of OA radiologically. However, the presence of knee ACC significantly increased the risk for OA in the same knee by a factor of three-to-four while knee calcification was associated with the more severe grades of radiographic OA.

10. Masters of Business Administration

“…This suggests that a significant proportion of cases with CC would be missed if knee radiographs alone were used to screen for CC, and this would result in important misclassification (for example, in genetic case-control studies). Although similar findings have been reported in two small studies [2,5], this is discordant with most previous reports [1,3,4,[6][7][8][9][10]15]. Previous studies were small, hospital based, and were therefore likely to overrepresent symptomatic knee arthropathy cases.…”

“…In our study, CC was more common at the hips than at the symphysis pubis [5][6][7]. However, in one large community-based survey, symphysis pubis calcification was 10-fold more common than hip CC [9].…”

“…Although the knee is the commonest location of CC, it is unclear whether the wrist [1][2][3][4], or the symphysis pubis is the second most commonly affected joint [5][6][7]. Similarly, the frequency with which CC occurs at other joints in the absence of knee involvement is unclear.…”

“…Similarly, the frequency with which CC occurs at other joints in the absence of knee involvement is unclear. Most studies suggest that CC occurs uncommonly or does not occur in the absence of knee involvement [1,3,4,[6][7][8][9][10]. For example, a study using a complete skeletal survey of 48 participants suggested that hand, knee, and pelvis radiographs together were sufficient to identify patients with CC at any joint [1].…”

European League Against Rheumatism recommendations for calcium pyrophosphate deposition. Part I: terminology and diagnosis

“…Calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) occurs almost exclusively in articular tissues, most commonly fibrocartilage and hyaline cartilage,1 and is the most common cause of chondrocalcinosis (CC). Calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) associated arthritis is the third most common inflammatory arthritis 2.…”