Musculoskeletal Flashcards
What are the functions of bone?
- STRUCTURE -> give structure and shape to the body
- MECHANICAL -> support and site for muscle attachment
- PROTECTIVE -> vital organs and bone marrow
- METABOLIC -> reserve of calcium (high surface area)
Describe the composition of bone.
o INORGANIC = 65%
- calcium hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2)
- store house for 99% of Ca in the body, 85% of the phosphorous and 65% Na & Mg
o ORGANIC – 35%
- bone cells and protein matrix -> collagen, osteoid
Describe bone geography.
What are the 5 types of anatomical bones?
- flat
- long
- short/cuboid
- irregular (vertebrate)
- sesamoid
What are the 3 major classifications of bone?
- anatomical
- macroscopic
- microscopic
How is macroscopic bone classified?
o CORTICAL/COMPACT
- long bones
- 80% of skeleton
- appendicular
- 80-90% calcified
- mainly mechanical and protective
o TRABECULAR/CANCELLOUS/SPONGY
- vertebrae & pelvis
- 20% of skeleton
- axial
- 15-25% calcified
- mainly metabolic function
- Large surface
What is the classification of bone by microanatomy?
- woven -> immature
- lamallar -> mature
Describe the microanatomy of cortical bone.
- organised into concentric lamellae -> form in response to mechanical forces -> give bone strength in the cortical bone -> can be seen under a microscope due to its striped pattern
- blood vessels travel through and across the bone in Haversian canals -> come into the periosteum and travel up, down and across the bone
What do osteoblasts do?
- build bone by laying down osteoid
What do osteoclasts do?
- multinucleate cells of macrophage family -> resorb or chew bone
What do osteocytes do?
- osteoblast like cells -> sit in lacunae in bones -> look inert (imbedded in matrix)
What is RANK/RANKL?
- a ligand that is responsible for laying down of new bone via differentiation of the osteoclast
- up-regulated in response to stimuli -> infection, trauma etc
What is osteoprotegerin?
- inhibitor of RANk/RANKL -> inhibits osteoclastogenesis
When does osteoprotegerin fall?
- menopause -> oestrogen falls -> OPG falls -> more resorption
When might a bone biopsy be taken?
- evaluate bone pain or tenderness
- investigate an abnormality seen on x-ray
- bone tumour diagnosis (benign vs. malignant)
- determine the cause of an unexplained infection
- evaluation of therapy
Name the 2 types of bone biopsy.
- CLOSED -> needle (Jamshidi needle) -> core biopsy
- OPEN -> for sclerotic or inaccessible lesions -> requires general anaesthetic
What is the common site for bone biopsy?
- transilliac -> good site to get a sample of cortical and cancellous bone
What are the 3 bone labels?
- H&E
- Masson - Goldner Trichrome
- tetracycline
What are the 3 main categories of metabolic bone disease?
- Related to endocrine abnormality (Vitamin D, Parathyroid hormone)
- Non-endocrine (e.g. age-related osteoporosis)
- Disuse osteopenia (results from the reduced use of bones e.g. in injury)
How is osteoporosis definded?
- a patients with a bone mineral density T-score -2.5 or lower when using a DEXA scan
Describe the aetiology of osteoporosis.
- primary = age-related or post-menopausal
- secondary = drugs or systemic disease
What are the two classification of osteoporosis?
- high and low turnover
What is osteomalacia?
- defective mineralisation of normally synthesise bone matrix
- can be due to vitamin D or PO4 deficiency
o called Rickets in children
What are the signs and symptoms of osteomalacia?
- bone pain/tenderness
- fracture and microfracture
- proximal weakness
- bone deformity -> e.g. tibia bowing in rickets
What happens in someone with hyperparathyroidism?
o excess PTH -> bone resorption
- ncreased Ca and PO4 excretion in urine -> calcium hydroxyapatite is broken down into its constituents
- hypercalcaemia
- hypophosphatemia
- skeletal changes of osteitis fibrosa cystica if disease is allowed to progress
What 4 organs are affeced by PTH?
- parathyroid
- bones
- kidneys
- proximal small intestine
What are the causes of hyperparathyroidism?
- primary = parathyroid adenoma (85-90%) or chief cell hyperplasia
- secondary = chronic renal deficiency or vitamin D deficiency
What are the symptoms of hyperparathyroidism?
- stones -> Ca oxalate renal stones
- bones -> osteitis fibrosa cystica, bone resorption
- abdominal groans -> acute pancreatitis
- psychic moans -> psychosis & depression
What bone changes occur in hyperparathyroidism?
- small Brown cell tumours (lytic lesions) -> usually on the radial side of the digits and thumbs
What are the 3 stages of Paget’s Disease?
- osteolytic (osteoclast pre-dominant stage)
- osteolytic-osteosclerotic (osteoblasts will try to build bone)
- quiescent osteosclerotic (there is disorganised, mineralised bone
When does Paget’s disease usually arise?
- over the age of 40
What is the aetiology of Paget’s disease?
o aetiology is unknown but could be:
- familial -> cases show autosomal pattern of inheritance with incomplete penetrance
- mutation 5q35-qter -> sequestosome 1 gene (on the long arm of chromosome 5)
- parvomyxovirus type particles have been seen on EM in Pagetic bone but has been disproven so unlikely
- overuse or previous bone injury
What sites are commonly affects in Paget’s disease?
What are the symptoms of Paget’s Disease?
- often asymptomatic -> found by chance
o pain
o microfractures
o nerve compression (incl. Spinal N and cord)
o skull changes may put medulla at risk
o deafness – AFFECTS region of temporal bone
o haemodynamic changes (sometimes)
o cardiac failure haemodynamic changes, cardiac failure
o hypercalcaemia
o development of sarcoma in area of involvement, 1% (osteosarcoma)
What is osteopenia?
- a T-score of -1.5 to -2.5
What is the FRAX tool?
- a calculation using BMD, age, weight, sex and height to generate a risk score for a particular patient -> Nogg guidelines are then referred to
What are the radiological signs of osteoporosis?
- loss of cortical bone/thinning of cortex (white line around bones on an X-ray - prominent of vertebrate)
- loss of trabeculae
- insufficiency fractures
What are insufficiency fractures?
- stress fractures due to normal stress on abnormal bones -> not limited to osteoporosis
What are the common sites of insufficiency fractures?
- sacrum
- underside of the femoral neck
- vertebral bodies
- pubic rami
What are the signs of insufficiency fractures on imaging?
o X-ray/CT scan
- initially normal (if caught early) -> but can get periosteal reaction and callus
- more commonly seen is increased sclerosis around fracture lines
o MRI
- bone oedema (i.e. low signal on T1, high signal on T2 and STIR)
o Bone scan
- increased osteoblastic activity (i.e. increased uptake)
Describe what is being seen on these scans.
- CT scan = would expect the normal bone to have a similar sort of density -> there would be areas of increased density (SCLEROSIS).
- MRI = same as CT
- bone scan = increased bone turnover in the same area -> commonly seen in the pelvic area (Honda sign) -> also see areas of increased uptake due to a vertebral body fracture
o all this points to an insufficiency fracture and osteoporosis
What is a possible consequence of osteomalacia is it is untreated?
- secondary hyperparathyroidism
What are the radiological signs of osteomalacia?
- radiology of osteomalacia depends on AGE and CLOSURE of the growth plates
- if the patient is an adult with a MATURE skeleton and CLOSED growth plates, they will get: looser’s zones osteopenia, codfish vertebrae and bending deformities
- if the patient is a child (i.e. before growth plate closure), they develop rickets: radiological signs centres mainly to growth plates, changes of osteomalacia
What are Looser’s zones?
o Looser’s zones are pseudofractures at high tensile strength areas -> type of insufficiency fracture
o found at similar areas to other insufficiency fractures:
- medial proximal femur
- lateral scapula
- pubic rami
- posterior proximal ulna
- ribs
o usually, they look less clean than normal insufficiency fractures -> look like short lucent lines with irregular sclerotic margins -> because the bones cannot heal properly
What can be seen on these scans?
o Looser’s Zones
- short, lucent lines with very sclerotic, irregular margins
- in right diagram, the bone is very osteopenic -> the whole femur has bent compared to normal
What is codfish vertebrate?
- bioconcave deformities of vertebral bodies
- seen in osteoporosis and osteomalacia
What can be seen in this scan?
o codfish vertebrae
- bodies should be much squarer
- usually bones are also very osteopenic
What are the features of rickets?
o changes are focused around the growth plate
- indistinct/frayed metaphyseal margin
- widened growth plate without calcification
- cupping/splaying metaphyses due to weight bearing
- enlargement of anterior ribs
- osteopenia
What are the main radiological differences between primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism?
- primary = bone resorption
- secondary = bone resorption and increase density
What is bone resorption?
- where bone as been eroded away
- often centred in spaces that are subperiosteal, subchondral and intracortical
- if they are large, they become brown tumours.
Describe what can be seen in these scans.
- cortical margin looks like it is harder to define on an x-ray
- lucencies in the skull, and there is a lack of crisp cortical edges due to periosteal reactions -> lucencies are areas of intracortical resorption (can be dot like instead of large) – PEPPER POT SKULL
- large lytic bone lesions in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (brown tumour)
- on the same scan, you’ll probably see bone resorption elsewhere
What are the radiological signs of renal osteodystrophy?
- Looser’s zones
- bending of bones
- osteopenia
- insufficiency fractures at end plates
- subperiosteal erosions and brown tumours
- sclerosis
- soft tissue calcification
- vertrea with increased density at endplates but reduced density in the middle -> called rugger jersey spine
What is renal osteodystrophy?
- a specialised type of primary hyperparathyroidism which can lead to secondary hyperparathyroidism
What is the diagnosis of this patients?
o renal osteodystrophy
- subperiosteal erosions and brown tumours are present
- sclerosis -> vertebral endplates giving a rugger jersey spine
What radiological signs of Paget’s exsist?
- cortical thickening
- bone expansion
- coarsening of trabeculae
- osteolytic
- osteosclerotic
- mixed lesions and osteoporosis circumscripta
What can be seen in this X-ray?
- patient is in the early phase of Paget’s
- fracture at the femoral head, and loosened bones around inferior pubic ramus
- at the same time, there is thickening of the bone cortex and trabeculae
What can be seen in this X-ray?
- this is a patient in a late phase of Paget’s
- left pubic ramus and left pelvic bone are very thick
- trabeculae is a lot coarser compared with the right side.
Explain what disease this patient is suffering from?
- Paget’s
- cortex is very thick -> disease is also affecting the mandible
- multiple lucencies in the skull (osteoporosis circumscripta)
What is a unique feature of Paget’s?
- Paget’s tends to only affect one bone, and doesn’t cross the joint -> might get poly-ostotic Paget’s (multiple bones affected)
- if a disease process affects adjacent bones -> it’s probably not Paget’s
What is rheumatoid arthritis?
- chronic joint inflammation -> specifically inflammation of the synovium (lining of synovial joints) -> SYNOVITIS
- if untreated it causes pain and destruction of the joint
What antibodies are associated with rheumatoid arthritis?
o autoantibodies
- rheumatoid factor
- anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)
What is ankylosing spondylitis?
- a seronegative spondyloarthropathy
- is chronic inflammation to the enthesis (where tendons insert into bone) -> ENTHESITIS
- if untreated it leads to pain and spinal fusion and deformities -> exaggerated thoracic kyphosis
What antibodies are associated with ankylosing spondylitis?
- no autoantibodies -> is seronegative
What are seronegative spondyloarthropathies?
o spinal inflammation of the joints without the presense of rheumatoid factor
- ankylosing spondylitis
- reiters syndrome and reactive arthritis
- arthritis associated with psoriasis (psoriatic arthritis)
- arthritis associated with gastrointestinal inflammation (enteropathic synovitis)
What is systemic lupus erythematosus?
- chronic tissue inflammation in the presence of antibodies directed against self antigens -> PATHOGENESIS IS DRIVEN BY AUTOANTIBODIES AND IMMUNE COMPLEXES
- causes multi-site inflammation but particularly the to joints, skin and kidney
What antibodies are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus?
o autoantibodies
- anti-nuclear antibodies
- anti-double stranded DNA antibodies