[Polymorphism of articular chondrocalcinosis].

The articular chondrocalcinosis--conditioned by the formation of crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate in the joint cartilage--increasingly gains clinical interest. The symptomatology is multivariant: mono-, oligo- and polyarticular with simultaneous localisation in the discs. Characteristic, but not proving, is the calcification demonstrated in the X-ray picture. Apart from the familial forms increasingly are observed spontaneous, solitary cases in persons older than 50 years (in 3% of all postmortem examinations). The chondrocalcinosis gains differential-diagnostic importance as to primary osteoarthroses, attacks of gout, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases of bones and joints. It appears symptomatically in hyperparathyroidism and hemochromatosis. The present paper gives as survey on the modern state of knowledge concerning clinic, heredity, diagnostics and pathogenesis.