Magnetic resonance imaging and axial involvement in spondylarthropathies. Delineation of the spinal entheses.

We used magnetic resonance imaging in a prospective cross-sectional study to evaluate the components of axial involvement in spondylarthropathies, to determine whether the entire intervertebral disk is an enthesis and to gauge how useful this imaging technique is in detecting enthesitis of the spine. Thirty-one patients with spondylarthropathies and 14 controls with mechanical spinal disease were included. Images of the thoracic and lumbar spine were obtained using plain radiography, radionuclide bone scanning, and magnetic resonance imaging (sagittal sections, T1-weighted sequences before and after gadolinium injection and fat saturation and T2-weighted sequences).

Prospective study of anterior chest wall involvement in ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.

A prospective study of anterior chest wall involvement was conducted in 50 ankylosing spondylitis patients and 50 psoriatic arthritis patients in the absence of palmoplantar pustulosis. All patients underwent a physical examination, tomograms, and a radionuclide bone scan. Magnetic resonance imaging with gadolinium was done in some cases.

Tumor-like bone dystrophy and peripheral joint fusion in a patient with Paget's disease of bone.

The authors report an 80-year-old woman who was evaluated for pain in her left leg and ankle. Sixteen years earlier, she had received a diagnosis of monostotic Paget's disease at the same site, based on roentgenographic changes. The lesion was very unusual, with tumor-like lysis of the affected area and fusion of the tibia, fibula, and talus.

CT and MRI of massive osteolysis of Gorham.

Massive osteolysis of Gorham is a clinical, radiographic, and histologic entity characterized by histologically benign vascular proliferation involving bone associated with extensive osteolysis. We present CT and MRI findings of the disease and serial radiography following the progressing bone destruction.

Sulfasalazine induced lupus in rheumatoid arthritis.

We describe 2 cases of a lupus syndrome induced by sulfasalazine in rheumatoid arthritis. All symptoms resolved and antihistone antibodies disappeared when sulfasalazine was discontinued. In one patient, perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies with specificity for myeloperoxidase were found critically increased just before the occurrence of vasculitis.

[Treatment of Horton disease. Value of synthetic antimalarials. Apropos of a retrospective study of 36 patients].

Thirty-six patients with giant cells arteritis were studied retrospectively. Histological examination of the temporal artery or another artery was positive in 95% of cases. Mean follow-up was five years.