Musculoskeletal symptoms related to arthropathy in patients receiving dialysis.

We evaluated musculoskeletal complaints related to arthropathy in 28 patients with end stage renal failure receiving maintenance dialysis. Twenty-three of 28 patients had arthritic complaints and 14 had an arthropathy. Six of 14 patients with arthropathy had a pattern resembling calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition (CPPD) disease, 4 patients had moderately severe osteoarthritis, 3 had calcific periarthritis, and 1 patient had acute arthritis with intermittent pain and swelling. Factors which predispose to metabolic arthropathies were observed as follows: 29% elevated ferritin; 39% history of hyperparathyroidism; 68% elevated parathormone; 54% hyperphosphatemia; 36% hypercalcemia, 29% HLA haplotypes A3, B7, or B14; and 60% hyperaluminemia. The arthropathy group had more abnormalities per patient (mean 3.6) than the group without arthropathy (mean 2.7) (p less than 0.05). Our data suggest that (1) arthritic complaints occur frequently in patients receiving dialysis; (2) arthropathy accounted for 61% of the complaints; (3) 43% of patients with arthropathy had CPPD-type; (4) renal osteodystrophy caused 17% of arthritic complaints; and (5) in patients receiving dialysis, there is a high incidence of metabolic abnormalities that are known to be associated with arthropathy.