[Articular complications of Kahler's disease. Results of a survey of 1953 cases of plasmocytic myelomas]

Abstract

The authors confirm the great rarity of joint complications in patients with Kahler's disease. Among the records of 1953 cases the following complications were the only one found: 2 cases of proved articular amylosis, 2 cases of probable articular amylosis, 3 cases of possible articular amylosis, 20 cases of arthropathy that were impossible to classify, 27 cases of compression of the median nerve in the carpan canal, 6 cases of gouty arthritis, and 3 cases of septic arthritis. The data on symptoms obtained in the course of this enquiry are in conformity with the data in the literature. Articular amylosis often takes on the appearance of a polyarthritic syndrome of progressive installation and extension, involving in particular the hands and the wrists, but sometimes involving in a symmetrical bilateral manner the elbows, the shoulders, and the knees. The affected joints are swollen, stiff, and painful. Local signs of inflammation are, however, often absent. The deformations characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis do not develop. The joints do not show radiological signs for most of the time. In addition, it is not possible to detect the rheumatoid factor in the serum. The arthropathies can also assume an oligo-articular topography. Articular discharges are very frequent: they are usually of a mechanical nature. Whatever the clinical appearance, an exact diagnosis can be established only by means of anatomo-pathological examination of the synovial membrane or of certain para-articular amyloid nodules. Myelomas complicated by amyloid articular deposits are often light chain, with only little increase in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, discrete hyperproteinaemia, moderate medullary plasmocytosis, and rare or limited radiological lesions. The carpal canal syndrome is either isolated or included within the framework of a polyarthropathy. Compression of the median nerve is due to amyloid infiltration into the synovial sheath of the tendons of the finger flexors, proof of which is not always easy. Gout is rare despite the frequency of hyperuricacidaemia caused by renal insufficiency. Septic arthritis is often caused by renal insufficiency. Septic arthritis is often caused by pneumococci to which those with a myeloma appear particularly suceptible.