Rheumatology and Bone Disease Flashcards
Cathy age 63, 6month history of increasing joint pain and stiffness, mainly across knuckles and wrists, Lasts an hour or so in mornings, eases off as uses hands, possible some swelling, ibuprofen helped a little, getting her down. Is this inflammatory or degenerative?
Inflammatory
History taking and presentation- what are the difference in inflammatory and degenerative disease?
Inflammatory: - pain eases with use - Stiffness (significant >60mins, early morning/ at rest (evening) -Swelling synovial+/-bony -Hot and red? -Pt demographics: young, psoriasis, FHx -Joint distribution: hands and feet -Respond to NSAIDs Degenerative: - pain increases with use, clicks/clunks -Stiffness not prolonged <30mins, morning/evening -No swelling or bony swelling -Not clinically inflamed -Pt demographics: older, prior occupation/sport -Joint distribution: 1st CMCJ, DIPJ, knees -Less convincing response to NSAIDs
What should you ask in MSK history taking (pain and stiffness)?
-Where is the pain -What is the nature of the pain -Is there any stiffness -Is there any swelling -What is the history of these symptoms -How has this affected function
WHat are the signs that bone pain is due to underlying tumour/infection?
Pain at rest and at night, unremitting pain.
Where does RA usually present?
Small joints of hands and feet, particularly history of swelling. But can affect any synovial joint inc joints in cervical spine and temporomandibular joint - Small joints in hands and feet - Wrist - Shoulder - TMJ - Temporomandibular joint - Knees - Ankles
Where does Osteoarthritis usually present?
- First carpometacarpal joint -Base of thumb (typically one of the first joints involved) - Hips - Spine - Knees - Big toe
If a patient has symptoms in their hands only / only the big toe of their feet, what could be?
Osteoarthritis
Where does Psoriatic arthritis usually present?
Widespread joint distribution + Enthesitis + Dactylitis
What is enthesitis?
Inflammation and pain where a tendon joins bone
What is dactylitis?
Swelling of a whole digit – whole finger/ toe
Describe the chronicity and natural history of gout?
- Acute phase: discrete episodes, completely fine in between - Chronic phase: occurs if left untreated, many years – constant inflammation and pain
Describe the chronicity and natural history of RA?
Escalation of symptoms over weeks (6-8 weeks), relatively rapid in onset and then stays at a level
Describe the chronicity and natural history of reactive arthritis?
Extremely bad at beginning (around 10 days after instigating infection), then symptoms tend to get better.
What is the cause of reactive arthritis?
- Classic reactive arthritis: triggered by bacterial gastroenteritis or STIs - Less classical: post viral
What is palindromic RA?
Inflammatory symptoms that abate either completelet/ nearly completely but then come back in episodes over a period of time. - Some patients evolve into having full blown RA - Some patients continue with palindromic RA
What is the wrist joint?
Radio-carpal joint: scaphoid and lunate articulate to form this
What do the carpal bones articulate with?
Metacarpals and also form the wrist joint
What is the Carpal tunnel?
Carpal bones form an arch in the coronal plane and a membranous band – flexor retinaculum spans between the medial and lateral edges of the arch carpel tunnel. Median nerve goes through the carpal tunnel
What muscles attach to the metacarpals?
Interossei muscles via the medial and lateral surfaces (which are concave)
Name the metacarpals in order
Metacarpal I = thumb Metacarpal II = index finger Metacarpal III = middle finger Metacarpal IV = ring finger Metacarpal V = little finger
What are the 3 important joints in the hand/ fingers?
- MCP: Metacarpophalangeal joints (knuckles)
- PIP: Proximal interphalangeal joint (one closes to the MCP)
- DIP: Distal interphalangeal joint (one at the end of the finger)
What is the clinical picture of RA?
- Symmetrical, polyarthritis, if untreated deformity
What features may RA hands show?
- -Ulnar deviation
- Subluxation of MCP
- Swan neck deformity
- Erosion on X ray
What is ulnar deviation?
patients fingers are drifting towards the ulnar border of the hand – caused by the extensor tendons at the metacarpalpharyngeal joints slipping of their normal anchorage point –> puls the fingers round to ulnar border
What is subluxation of MCP?
– swollen and prominent due to synovial thickening + MCP joint itself is sitting higher than the level of the fingers (fingers have subluxed down) bc of the destructive nature of the arthritis
What is a swan neck deformity?
Proximal interpharyngeal joint is distended and the distal interpharyngeal joint is flexed due to a tendon issue
What is the typical RA picture on X ray?
Erosions of the bone – chunk of bone disssapears bc of inflammatory cytokines in joints
How can Osteoarthritis affect the hands - name the specific terms?
Nodal OA hands:
- Bouchard’s node: PIP
- Heberden’s node: DIP
- these terms are specific to OA
How can OA affect the knees?
Loss of the medial/ lateral compartment joint space –>leg changes shape –>
- bow legged / knock kneed - Varus (bowelegged deformity)
- Valgus (knock kneed / lateral deformity
What is Ankylosing spondylitis?
Inflammatory arthritis of the spine that causes fusion of the spinal joints and a fixed rigid spine
Where does gout usually affect?
Big toe joint: 1st MTPJ arthritis , also midfoot, ankle knee, other joints
What is chronic polyarticular tophaceous gout?
Persistant polyarticular gout due to: renal disease (urate build up) or genetic defect in enzymes that process urate. White material = urate crystals that build up in the soft tissues
What are the 2 important inflammatory maker blood tests in rheumatology?
- ESR
- CRP
What is ESR?
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate , take a blood sample and centrifuge it, if there is inflammation the red cells get coated by fibrinogen + other inflammatory proteins –>red cells stick together in big clumps and will fall faster when centrifuged. Measure of the rate of which the red blood cells fall to the bottom of the test tube - Quicker they fall –>the more inflammation present (ESR high)
For how long will ESR stay high after the inflammatory trigger has gone?
It will stay high for quite a long time (120 day lifespan rbc) – useful in clinical practice bc you will see the time lag between some of the other markers. Rises and falls slowly (days to weeks)
When is ESR raised?
Inflammation and infection
What is a disadvantage of ESR?
Prone to false positives
Who is at risk of false positively high ESR?
- Age, female, obesity, racial difference (South east asia have a naturally higher ESR), hypercholesterolaemia, high Immunoglobulins (inc myeloma), anaemia
What is a useful way of diagnosing SLE?
ESR will go up but other measures (like CRP) will not
What is CRP?
C reactive protein – acute phase protein (pentameric peptide) that is made in the liver
What is CRP made in response to?
Proinflammatory cytokines inc IL-6, IL-1, TNF (released in inflammation/infection)
What is the role of CRP?
Binds to damaged cells and activates the complement cascade
What happens to CRP during the course of an infection?
Rises and falls rapidly - High at 6hrs, peak at 48hrs after the onset of inflammatory/infective process - Come down again quite quickly
What are auto-antibodies?
Immunoglobulins that bind to self antigens –>cause inflammation in perfectly normal parts of the body
In RA what autoantibodies may be present?
- RF: Rheumatoid factor
- anti-CCP: Cyclic cittrulinated peptide
In SLE what autoantibodies may be present?
- ANA: anti nuclear antibody (binds to antigens within cell nucleus)
- dsDNA: double stranded DNA
What is Spondyloarthritis (SpA)?
describes a group of conditions that have common features :
- affects spine and peripheral joints
- familial clustering and links to certain type 1 HLA antigens (HLA B27)
- Ankylosing spondylitis (axial SpA) - Enteropathic Arthritis - Psoriatic Arthritis - Reactive arthritis - Acute anterior uveitis (iritis) - JIA (enthesitis-related) - Undifferentiated SpA
What tissue type are these all SpA conditions associated with (to some extent)?
HLA B27
What is HLA B27
Human leucocyte antigen B27, Class 1 surface antigen (present on all cells except rbc), encoded by Major histocompativility comples (MHC) on Chr 6.
What is the function of HLA B27
Antigen presenting cell
In the UK, how many people are HLA B27 positive?
9%. Stand alone this is not important but if the patient has symptoms it is relevant
What is the global distribution of HLA B27 positivity like?
- Higher in northern hemisphere: Scandanavia, northern states and also have higher incidences of spondyloarthritis - Lower near the equator
Why is HLA B27 linked with disease? 3 main theories:
3 main theories:
- ‘molecular mimicry’ infection –> immune response–> infectious agent has peptides very similar to HLA B27 molecules–> auto immune response triggered against HLA B27
- Misfolding theory: HLA has the propensity to misfold–> when it is unfolded it can joint together and accumulate inside the endoplasmic recticulum–> triggers and inflammatory response ‘the endoplasmic recticulum upr’–> cascade of inflammatory cytokines (IL-23,17)
- HLA B27 heavy homodimer hypothesis: Under certain circumstances the B27 heavy chains can join together to form dimers–> accumulate in the endoplasmic reticulum–> triggers same erupr–> cascade of inflammatory cytokines. Dimers can also upregulate other components on the immune response like NK cells Incomplete and doesnt explain all the disease we see in SpA
How many patients with ankylosing spondylitis are HLA B27 positive?
85%
What are the clinical features of SpA?
- Spinal disease: inflammatory back pain, over time–> restricted movement and change to spine – straight spine, neck forward , exaggerated kyphosis of the thoracic spine, patients often stand with knees bent to not lose centre of gravity
- Ethesitis: inflammation of tendon. Achilles tendon, patellar tendon, elbow – tennis elbow
- Oligoarthritis: 1 or 2 large joints that are inflamed. Knee joint
- Iritis/acute anterior uveitis: eye is red, uncomfortable, photophobic and may have blurring of vision, if irregular iris/pupil –previous episodes of inflammation that have causes scarring inside the eye. Ask about history or red painful eye associated with blurring of vision and photophobia
- Psoriasis: psoriatic plaques – red raised skin with scale on top, very itchy. Elbows, fronts of knees, other places
How is SpA arthritis different to RA?
- RA mainly affects the small joints of hands and feet - Polyarthritis
- SpA affects 1 or 2 large joints -Oligoarthritis
What are the clinical features of SpA?
SPINEACHE: S-Sausage digit (dactylitis) P-psoriasis I-inflammatory back pain N-nsaid good response E-enthesitis (heel) A-arthritis C-Crohns/Colitis/ Elevated CRP H-HLA B27 E-eye (uveitis)
What percentage of patients with spinal inflammation have a high CRP?
50%
What are the signs that it is Inflammatory back pain?
- Young age of onset <40 yrs
- Long duration – months or years
- Better with excersize, worse with rest
- Stiffness in the morning
- Pain at nightime – often in the second half of night (as they stiffen up through night), can wake up with pain,
- Thoracic spine, front of rib cage, alternating buttock pain
What is buttock pain a sign of?
Sacro-iliac joint pain
What is the sequence of damage in ankylosing spondylitis/axial spondylarthritis?
- Repeated episodes of inflammation in the vertebral corners (bright white)
- Over time the body repairs itself with fat cells, which replace the areas of inflammation
- However: once there is fat cells within the bone –> triggers an automatic response whereby new bone (calcium) is formed along the lines of the ligaments –> fusion in the spine (syndesmophytes)
How is ankylosing spondylitis staged?
- Non radiographic stage (back pain, sacroilitis on MRI may be present)
- Radiographic stage (eventual progression to syndesmophytes)
How long will it take ankylosing spondylitis to progress to the radiographic stage?
May take up to 10yrs
How is diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis made?
In patients with more than 3 months back pain and age of onset less than 45 yrs: • Sacroillitis on imaging (MRI) + atleast 1 SpA feature • HLA-B27 positive + atleast 2 SpA features (don’t need imaging)
What will MRI show in ankylosing spondylitis?
Bone marrow oedema – subchondral periarticular (bright white on a T2 MRI scan)
What are the features of ankylosing spondylitis on X ray?
Late stage - X ray is not diagnostic imaging - aim to pick up before it gets to this stage -
- Syndesmophytes: calcium that grows on the front of the spine – they join together, eventually will happen in multiple levels of the spine.
- Pic shows lumbar spine and bit of thoracic spine syndesmophytes - Sacroiliitis: fusion of the sacro-iliac joints
- End stage: Bamboo spine – vertebrae seem all joined together as a block of bone and cant see the disc space
What is the final stage of AS?
Sever kyphosis of thoracic and cervical spine - makes forward vision v difficult/impossible
What is the management of AS?
- Physiotherapy (excersize)
- Anti-inflammatory NSAIDs- pain control
- Biological drugs: anti TNF, IL-17 blockers, IL-23 blockers
What is psoriatic arthritis?
- Can be just peripheral joint involvement
- Can have it alongside spinal involvement
How can psoriatic arthritis present on hand?
- Dactylitis – very painful, patient thinks they have broken their toes
- DIP joint swelling
- Nails extensive psoriasis changes: brittle, flaky, lifted away from nailbed, multiple dents
- Skin psoriasis
- Z thumb
What are hidden sites of psoriasis?
- Behind and in the ear
- Nail pitting >5 or 6
- Psoriasis in umbilicus
- Scalp
- Back of bottom
- Genital psoriasis
- Onycholysis: nail is thickened and lifted away from nail bed – little finger has triangle across the corner of the nail
What is Arthritis mutilans?
Form of psoriatic arthritis, destructive arthritis affecting the small joints of the hands erodes the joint away. Fingers deformed, not fixed joints very bendy
What is the managament of SpA?
- If only spinal involvement (Ankylosing spondylitis) –> biological drugs
- If spinal involvement + peripheral arthritis (Ankylosing spondylitis + psoriatic arthritis) –>combination of biological drugs + oral DMARDs (Methotraxate, sulphosalazine, leflunomide)
- If only psoriatic arthritis –>oral DMARDs
What is reactive arthritis?
Describes a triad of: Arthritis, conjunctivitis and (sterile) urethritis. Can be a one off episode or recurrent epsidoes or the beginning of a lifelong SpA condition. Following an infection (bacterial gastroenteritis, STIs)
What is the aetiology of reactive arthritis?
Typical infection – bacterial gastroenteritis, STIs (Chlammydia most common , also gonorrhoeae)
What are the signs of Reactive arthritis?
- Oligoarthritis (knee joint most common), conjunctivitis and urethritis
- Keratoderma blenorrhagica: on soles of feet
- Circinate balanitis: genitial inflammation
What is enteropathic arthritis?
Inflammatory arthritis associated with ulcerartive colitis or Crohns disease.
What is the clinical picture of enteropathic arthritis?
Has the exact same joints distribution as psoriatic arthritis: oligoarthritis of the large joints, often they don’t mirror the bowel inflammation
What is the Tx of enteropathic arthritis?
- Methotrexate is good for both
- Azathiproine(good for bowels) but not for arthritis
- Anti-TNF is good for both
- Newer biological drugs -vedolizumab (good for bowels) but can be bad and trigger inflammatory arthritis
Definition of osteoporosis
Systemic skeletal disease characterised by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue with a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture
What are the common fractures in osteoporosis?
- Vertebral fracture (sudden onset back pain, 2/3 asympomtatic)
- Colle’s fracture (wrist broken end of radius bent backwards following fall on outstretched arm)
- Hip-Proximal femur
What is the prevalence of fracture due to osteoporosis?
VERY COMMON - Women>50: 50% - Men >50: 20%
fracture in Osteoporosis commonly occur due to?
- Trauma (can be minor – changing duvet, lifting heavy if osteoporosis)
What determines risk of fracture?
BONE STRENGHT
What determines bone strength?
- BMD (combo of peak bone mass and rate of bone loss)
- Bone size (bigger, thicker = stronger)
- Bone quality (bone turnover, architecture, mineralisation)
When is peak bone mass reached?
Around 30