Aging of the population and rheumatic arthropathies. Epidemiological and clinico-therapeutic aspects
Cervini, C.; Grassi, W.; Zampa, A.M.
La Clinica Terapeutica 98(6): 587-616
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-9074 PMID: 7026142 Document Number: 169603
The influence of the increasing proportion of elderly subjects on the epidemiology of rheumatic diseases was studied. The clinical and pathological features and the treatment of the most common musculoskeletal diseases associated with old age were analyzed. These included the following: senile rheumatoid arthritis; chondrocalcinosis (or pseudo-gout); polymyalgia rheumatica (with or without coexistent giant cell arteritis), the need for early and prolonged treatment with corticosteroids being emphasized; and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, representing an ossifying diathesis and not merely a variant of osteoarthritis. Young persons may develop these disorders. The need for carefully designed, prospective studies in gero-rheumatology (or involutional rheumatology) are stressed.