Psoriasis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psoriasis, including details on treatment, prevention, medication, causes.

Imaging the joint and enthesis: insights into pathogenesis of psoriatic arthritis.

McGonagle D

Academic Unit Musculoskeletal Diseases, University of Leeds, Calderdale Royal Hospital, Salterhebble, Halifax HX3 0PW, UK. d.g.mcgonagle@leeds.ac.uk

The distinct radiographic features of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) help confirm it as a distinct entity from rheumatoid arthritis and highlight some unique non-synovial based disease imaging features. The advent of magnetic resonance imaging and a better understanding of joint microanatomy including the complexity of joint entheses provide a unifying anatomical and biomechanical concept that links disease at the apparently disparate sites of involvement in PsA, including the synovium, the enthesis, the bone and the periosteum. These findings suggest a reason for the localisation of disease to skeletal sites that are subject to repeated mechanical stressing.

Published 14 February 2005 in Ann Rheum Dis, 64: ii58-60.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Psoriasis Research Today. All Rights Reserved.