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Clinical, radiographic and pathologic abnormalities in calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease (CPPD) (pseudogout) are outlined in an investigation of 85 patients with definite or probable disease and available cadaveric and human surgical material. Pyrophosphate arthropathy produced distinctive roentgenographic abnormalities with were most frequent in the knee, wrist and metacarpophalangeal joints. Although the alterations superficially resembled osteoarthritis, they were frequently more severe and progressive with extensive fragmentation of bone, causing intra-articular osseous bodies. Pyrophosphate arthropathy occurred in unusual locations, such as the radiocarpal compartment of the wrist, elbow, and patellofemoral compartment of the knee. These characteristics allow the radiologist to suggest a probable diagnosis of CPPD even in the absence of articular calcification.

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Radiographic abnormalities of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 8 patients with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) included atypical features: lack of osteoporosis, bone sclerosis and proliferation about erosions, osteophytosis, and bony ankylosis. Atypical clinical features included a high incidence of flexion contractures of elbows, wrists, ankles, or knees. It is not surprising that bone production occurs about involved articulations in patients with RA·DISH, as the latter disorder is characterized by bony proliferation at sites of ligament and tendon attachment to bone in the axial and extraaxial skeleton, perhaps related to stress.

SUMMARY The possible contribution of immunological mechanisms in the development of LibmanSacks endocarditis was studied in 2 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus who underwent aortic valve replacement. Sections of verrucous lesions, stained with haematoxylin and eosin, showed three apparently distinct zones: an outer exudative zone of fibrin, nuclear debris, and haematoxylin-stainbd bodies; a middle organizing zone of proliferating capillaries and fibroblasts; and an inner zone of neovascularization which showed distinct, thin-walled junctional vessels. The striking finding was the apparently selective deposition of immunoglobulins and complement, identified by direct immunofluorescencz, within the walls of the small junctional vessels of the zone of nmovascularization. We suggest that the observed immune deposits are immune complexes and that circulating immune complexes may play a critical role in the growth and proliferation of the verrucous lesion.