Osteolytic vertebral lesions as a manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis and related disorders

Abstract

Abstract Three patients, whose presenting clinical complaints were back pain, had rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis. Destructive vertebral lesions were present in each case and biopsy specimens from the spine in two patients revealed rheumatoid nodules in one and chronic inflammation and invasive fibrosis in the second. Vertebral and disc lesions are rare in rheumatoid arthritis and relatively common in spondylitis. In the latter disease the lesion may be mistaken for a tuberculous abscess.