SPINAL CHANGES IN IDIOPATHIC CHONDROCALCINOSIS ARTICULARIS

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Abstract
The lumbar-spine radiographs of 67 patients with idiopathic chondrocalcinosis articularis were reviewed for disc calcification and other changes. Calcification was present in 21 (31%) of the patients, seen most frequently at the L 2–3 disc space. The 21 patients as a group were significantly older than the 46 patients without disc calcification, and also had a much higher incidence of chondrocalcinosis in peripheral joins. There was no association with back pain or spinal stiffness. The 21 patients with disc calcification included six patients with a destructive peripheral arthropathy, and three of them had destructive changes affecting the lumbar spine. Three patients with a destructive peripheral arthropathy were also included in the group without disc calcification, and one of these had a destructive arthritis of the lumbar spine. For comparison, there was a 55% incidence of spinal chondrocalcinosis in nine patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and peripheral joint chondrocalcinosis, and a 6% incidence in 100 anteroposterior lumbar spine radiograph ‘controls’, taken before intravenous urography, although in this letter group the changes were minimal and confined to the margin of a single disc in each case. * Paper read at the Annual Meeting of the British Association for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, London, March 1976. Shared the Association prize for the best short paper.

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