Bone Alterations in Painful Osteoarthritic Shoulder

Abstract

Abstract:This report describes shoulder osteoarthritis due to bone alterations which were confirmed radiographically. We report an 85 year old Japanese female with right shoulder pain. Radiographic findings showed bone signal changes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and accumulation by bone scintigraphy in the affected area. The screening of other joint (left shoulder) showed no such changes. So, bone alterations may be involved in pathogenesis of shoulder osteoarthritis presenting with pain, which we want to emphasize in this case.

Osteoarthritis in the forefoot accompanied with joint pain is potentially associated with bone alterations

“…Based on our observations, we earlier proposed that the major pathophysiology of hip, shoulder, and knee OA with accompanying joint pain may be due to bone alterations [6][7][8][9] . While we often encounter patients without serious radiographic OA complaining of joint pain, even in the small joints, there are also numerous cases of advanced radiographic OA with no pain in the affected bone regions.…”

“…Based on the results of our previous studies [6][7][8][9] and others [20] , we consider that bone signal changes detected by MRI may be representative of microfractures, which in turn cause joint pain. In support of this, patients with hip OA and continuous joint pain showed persistent bone signal changes in MRI, while those in whom the pain had disappeared exhibited an absence of signal changes [23] .…”

Bone alterations are associated with ankle osteoarthritis joint pain

“…Furthermore, bone alterations detected by MRI disappeared along with joint pain resolution 15 . We have also described that OA joint pain may be due to bone-related etiologies in various areas of the body 16 17 18 19 . Similarly to prior OA studies, we considered that a primary cause of ankle joint pain in this series might be bone alterations since MRI bone signal changes were observed in painful ankle regions that improved despite radiographic OA.…”