We reported a case of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) combined with pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) from Peking University People's Hospital. The clinical data were introduced and the related literature was reviewed. The clinical features, treatment and prognosis of the disease were summarized to improve clinicians' understanding of this rare disease and avoid misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis. A 45-year-old female, with 15 years of RA history and unregular treatment, was admitted to the hospital with the complaint of aggravating pain and swelling in the right knee for 3 months. The puncture of the right knee was performed and there was a large amount of bloody synovial fluid that could not be explained by her RA history. Moreover, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the right knee revealed hemosiderin deposition with low-intensity signals on both T1-weighted and T2-weighted images which suggested PVNS to us. Then, the patient underwent knee arthroscopy and biopsy to assist in diagnosis. The arthroscopic appearance and pathology were consistent with PVNS and the hyperplastic synovium was removed during arthroscopy. After the operation, she did active functional exercises and took disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs to control RA. She recovered well and remained asymptomatic after half a year of follow-up. Also, there was no recurrence of the right knee. As we all know, RA is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by chronic synovitis and joint damage. And PVNS is characterized by synovial proliferation and infiltrative process. Both of them are synovial involvement and the clinical manifestations are quite similar. PVNS has occasionally been reported in association with RA. So it is difficult to make a clear diagnosis of RA combined with PVNS. Literature was searched with RA+PVNS in the WanFang Medical Network Database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure and there were no related Chinese cases. Then we searched literature from PubMed with RA+PVNS. The cases were still rare and eventually 2 related articles were yielded including 2 similar patients. It is necessary to fully understand the disease development, complicated MRI appearance and various pathological morpho-logy. They can contribute to making a correct diagnosis which is effective to guide the proper treatment.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid/diagnosis* ; Arthroscopy ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint/diagnostic imaging* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Synovitis, Pigmented Villonodular/diagnosis*

A 73-year-old woman presented with a recurrent cystic mass around her left olecranon. She had a history of 8 steroid injections due to elbow pain beginning 3 years ago and twice had undergone aspiration of olecranon bursitis that developed two months prior to presentation. She had been taking medications for hypertension and diabetes with no pertinent past history. On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), there were multiple nodules in the olecranon bursa, which were isointense to muscle on T1-weighted images and hyperintense to muscle on T2-weighted images. Our initial diagnosis was synovial chondromatosis. On bursoscopy, masses of gray-white colored nodules were observed in the bursa. Finally, synovial chondromatosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial infection were concurrently diagnosed. In conclusion, uncalcified synovial chondromatosis and rice bodies can have similar visual and MRI characteristics; therefore, we suggest that clinicians should be aware of the possibility of other infections in cases of this type.
Aged ; Bursitis ; Chondromatosis, Synovial ; Diagnosis ; Elbow ; Female ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Mycobacterium ; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria ; Olecranon Process ; Synovitis ; Tuberculosis

Pigmented villonodular synovitis is a benign tumor arising from synovial fibroblasts or histiocytes. There are diffuse and localized forms: the former involves the entire synovium and the latter consists of nodules, small tumefactions, or pedunculated masses. The knee is the joint most commonly affected and the clinical diagnosis is difficult, so initial misdiagnosis is common. We report a case of pigmented villonodular synovitis developing in the knee of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient, mistaken for an RA flare-up.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Fibroblasts ; Histiocytes ; Humans ; Joints ; Knee ; Synovial Membrane ; Synovitis, Pigmented Villonodular

PURPOSE: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an auto inflammatory disease characterized by periodic fever, synovitis and serositis. Patients may be admitted to gastroenterology units due to gastrointestinal symptoms. In this study; we aimed to analyze endoscopic findings and diagnostic utility of endoscopic procedure in children with FMF. METHODS: Patient with FMF that was performed endoscopy for the gastrointestinal symptoms were included to the study (39 of 164 patients, 53 procedure). A control group was randomly designed as age and gender matched four endoscopic procedures per one endoscopic procedure of patients with FMF (n=212). RESULTS: No different was found between the patients and control group in esophagogastroscopy findings. However, the diagnosis of gastrointestinal pathology was made by esophagogastroscopy in 46.2% patients. Colonoscopic examination revealed that the frequency of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was higher in undiagnosed patients compared to both the control group (50.0% vs. 6.9%, p < 0.05, odds ratio [OR]:13.4 and 95% confidence inteval [95% CI]: 2.1–84.3) and the patients under colchicine treatment (50.0% vs. 8.3%, p < 0.05, OR: 11 and 95% CI: 0.8–147.8). Colonoscopic procedure that was made after the diagnosis was found to provide contribution by 16.7% in determining the etiology of the additional symptoms. CONCLUSION: Patients with FMF may be admitted to pediatric gastroenterology outpatient clinic prior to diagnosis or during the follow-up period. The frequency of IBD is high in undiagnosed patients with FMF. Endoscopic procedures may be helpful in these patients for the diagnosis accompanying mucosal lesions.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Child* ; Colchicine ; Colonoscopy ; Diagnosis ; Endoscopy ; Familial Mediterranean Fever* ; Fever ; Follow-Up Studies ; Gastroenterology ; Gastroscopy ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Odds Ratio ; Pathology ; Serositis ; Synovitis

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to suggest a multimodal diagnostic approach to determine the cause of the disease in patients diagnosed with synovitis of the wrist and who underwent synovectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine patients, who underwent contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) preoperatively and synovectomy from January 2000 to December 2013, were reviewed retrospectively. Among them, 17 patients underwent a Tc99m white blood cell (WBC) scan preoperatively. In patients who met the diagnostic criteria of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the diagnosis was confirmed as RA if the MRI finding or histology was compatible with RA. If the MRI finding and histology were disparate, the final diagnosis was made based on the histologic finding. RESULTS: Of the nine patients who met the diagnostic criteria of RA, seven patients were finally diagnosed as RA and two patients as tuberculous arthritis. Of the 20 patients who did not meet the diagnostic criteria of RA, the MRI findings and histology were consistent with the same disease in 12 patients. In the remaining eight patients, five were diagnosed with nonspecific chronic synovitis, one with RA, and two with tuberculous arthritis based on the clinical findings, MRI, and histology findings. CONCLUSION: MRI and a WBC scan are very useful imaging modalities for diagnosing the causative condition of the wrist synovitis. A histology evaluation after synovectomy can also be useful in cases with a difficult diagnosis or are refractory to medications.
Arthritis ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Leukocytes ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Retrospective Studies ; Synovitis* ; Wrist*

Buttocks ; pathology ; Humans ; Muscle Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; Muscle, Skeletal ; pathology ; Synovitis, Pigmented Villonodular ; diagnosis

Remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) syndrome is a rare condition that occurs in elderly individuals. It is characterized by sudden onset of bilateral symmetrical distal tenosynovitis that accompanied by obvious swelling of the hand with pitting edema and absence of rheumatoid factor (RF). This disease entity sometimes presented as overlap syndrome with other rheumatic diseases and needed to be differentiated from those. However, if the diagnosis is confirmed, the response to steroid is good. The purpose of this report is to describe the case of RS3PE syndrome presented with bilateral hand dorsum edema in a middle-aged woman.
Aged ; Diagnosis ; Edema ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Polymyalgia Rheumatica ; Rheumatic Diseases ; Rheumatoid Factor ; Synovitis ; Tenosynovitis

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal involvement in melioidosis is often seen in conjunction with a disseminated illness. Recent reports suggest that operative management of musculoskeletal melioidosis has favourable results. The purpose of this study was to review the patient profile and clinical outcomes of Burkholderia pseudomallei infection in the musculoskeletal system. METHODS: Hospital records of 163 patients who were diagnosed to have B. pseudomallei infection between January 2009 and December 2014 were reviewed. Patients underwent surgical and nonsurgical management depending upon the tissue of involvement. Epidata software was used to record the data. The SPSS ver. 17.0 was used for analysis. RESULTS: Eighteen out of 24 patients who had musculoskeletal melioidosis were available for follow-up. Septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and intramuscular abscess were the common diagnosis, with 6 patients in each group. Twelve patients required surgical intervention. All patients received a full course of parenteral ceftazidime followed by oral doxycycline and co-trimoxazole. Two out of 6 patients (33.3%) died among those who had nonsurgical management as compared to none in the group who had surgical management. This was significant at 10% level of significance (p = 0.098). The rest were followed up for a minimum of 1 year with no evidence of disease recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: This series describing musculoskeletal involvement in melioidosis is the largest such study from a recently recognized ‘endemic’ region. Of importance are the patterns of musculoskeletal involvement, pitfalls in diagnosis and adequate clinical response with timely diagnosis and appropriate surgical management.
Abscess ; Arthritis, Infectious ; Burkholderia pseudomallei* ; Burkholderia* ; Ceftazidime ; Debridement ; Diagnosis ; Doxycycline ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hospital Records ; Humans ; Melioidosis ; Musculoskeletal System ; Osteomyelitis ; Recurrence ; Synovitis ; Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination

Ultrasonography (US) is a useful screening method for the diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and congenital spinal anomalies in infants. In addition, US is a useful, noninvasive imaging modality for the diagnosis of transient synovitis in children. The early detection of DDH leads to a better prognosis without surgical intervention. Moreover, spinal US allows the detection of congenital malformations and can also demonstrate normal anatomy and normal variants that may resemble disorders. Therefore, radiologists should be familiar with the sonographic anatomy of the normal infant hip, scanning and measurement techniques for DDH, the US features of transient synovitis in children, spinal US techniques, and the US features of normal anatomical structures, normal variants, and congenital spinal anomalies.
Child ; Diagnosis ; Hip Dislocation, Congenital ; Hip* ; Humans ; Infant ; Mass Screening ; Methods ; Prognosis ; Spinal Dysraphism ; Spine* ; Synovitis ; Ultrasonography*

Acute Disease ; Arthritis ; diagnosis ; Edema ; diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Skin Diseases ; diagnosis ; Syndrome ; Synovitis ; diagnosis