Musculoskeletal & Skin Pathology for Medical II Students

Spring 2008 Lab Supplement
Arthritis Carousel

Arthritis 7

Case History Rheumatoid Arthritis Slide 19: An 81-year-old woman first noted painful swelling of the joints of the hands and feet 7 years before her death. During this period, there developed progressive deformities of these joints and her knees. The hands especially showed flexion contractures and ulnar deviation of the phalanges. Physiotherapy and gold salts were used to allay symptoms for approximately 6 months before she died. Death resulted from acute congestive heart failure.

Case History Rheumatoid Arthritis Slide 20: same as 19.

Case History Ankylosing Spondylitis Slide 21: This specimen was obtained from a 47-year-old Caucasian man who had been hospitalized for two months before death. He died of intracranial hemorrhage from a ruptured aneurysm of the right anterior cerebral artery. No complaints referable to the spine were recorded. Autopsy revealed changes typical of chronic arthritis affecting all the joints of the lower extremity, fusion of the left hip and left knee, as well as a completely rigid spine.

Slides 19 & 20 | Slide 21

Slide 19 Radiograph of the finger presents gross destruction and subluxation of the metacarpophalangeal joint and extensive osteoporosis of the articular ends of these bones.

Slide 20 The findings of the preceding roentgenogram (slide 19) are duplicated in the tissue section. Extensive thickening of the periarticular tissue, particularly on the volar aspect of the subluxated metacarpophalangeal joint, is seen. Almost all of the articular cartilage of the joint has been destroyed and the surfaces are covered by thick synovial pannus. Extensive subchondral involvement of the bone marrow has destroyed cancellous bone and the subchondral plate of the metacarpal head. It has stimulated sufficient cancellous bone destruction to produce a roentgenographic "cyst" in the metaphysis.

Arthritis home | a.1 | a.2 | a.3 | a.4 | a.5 | a.6 | a.7 | a.8

MS Home

Medical II

Updated August 29, 2007