Progressive cauda equina syndrome and extensive calification/ossification of the lumbosacral meninges

A patient with longstanding ankylosing spondylitis (AS) developed a cauda equina syndrome. The myelogram showed a block at the L2 level. Vertebral computerised tomography showed calcification in the centre of the spinal canal. The patient also had features suggestive of a diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH). Meningeal calcification has never been reported in AS, so we suggest that this is related to an associated DISH. Cauda equina syndrome has not been described in DISH, and calcification of meninges has not been reported in AS, so we suggest that the meningeal calcifications and associated cauda equina syndrome are related to DISH

Amyloid arthropathy in patients undergoing periodical haemodialysis for chronic renal failure: a new complication.

Seven patients (five male and two female) with chronic renal failure (CRF) treated by periodical haemodialysis presented with swelling and effusion of more than three months' duration in knees (four bilateral), shoulders (two, one of them bilateral), elbow (one), and ankle (one). Four had a carpal tunnel syndrome both clinically and electromyographically (three bilateral). All patients had hyperparathyroidism secondary to their CRF, which was not due to amyloidosis in any of them. The dialysis duration period varied from five to 14 years, with an average of 8.6 years. Amyloid deposits (Congo red positive areas with green birefringence under polarising microscopy) were shown in six of the seven synovial biopsy specimens of the knee, in five of the sediments of the synovial fluids, and in specimens removed during carpal tunnel syndrome surgery. No amyloid was found in the biopsy specimen of abdominal fat of six of the patients. The finding of amyloid only in the synovial membrane and fluid, and carpal tunnel, its absence in abdominal fat, and the lack of other manifestations of generalised amyloidosis (cardiomyopathy, malabsorption syndrome, macroglossia, etc.) and of Bence Jones myeloma (protein immunoelectrophoresis normal) raises the possibility that this is a form of amyloidosis which is peculiar to CRF treated by periodical haemodialysis

HLA class II antigens (DR, DQ LOCI) and peripheral arthritis in ankylosing spondylitis.

Fifty one patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) were typed for HLA-A, B, C, DR, and DQ antigens. The antigen frequencies were compared with those of a normal population and with a B27 positive control group. All but one of the patients with AS were HLA-B27 positive. A positive linkage disequilibrium between Cw1, Cw2, DR1, and the B27 antigen was observed. Patients with AS showed a significant increase in DQw2 antigen compared with the B27 positive control group. No differences in antigenic frequencies were observed in patients having peripheral arthritis and patients with only axial involvement. Seven out of nine patients (78%) with an erosive peripheral arthritis were DR7 positive, suggesting that DR7 or genes closely linked could be related with a more aggressive peripheral joint involvement in patients with AS

Immunoglobulin A and C reactive protein levels in ankylosing spondylitis

Correspondence: SIR, We read with interest the recent paper by Sanders et al on the correlation of immunoglobulin and C reactive protein (CRP) levels in 22 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and 20 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).' The authors found that IgA serum levels, though raised in AS, do not correlate with CRP levels as they do in RA, suggesting that the mechanism of increase of IgA in the two diseases may be different. They conclude that production of IgA in AS is unrelated to the stimulation of acute phase reactants, reflecting a specific mucosal immune stimulation, possibly in the gut. Thus IgA may be a marker of the pathogenesis of AS