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Speaker: Opportunity to better understand, more effectively treat pseudogout exists
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DESTIN, Fla. — While often undetected and understudied, pseudogout may be as treatable as rheumatoid arthritis and gout.
“It is not a popular disease, but it is interesting, and we have great opportunity in this disease to better understand it and more effectively treat it,” Ann K. Rosenthal, MD, said at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology Annual Meeting, here.
She said some regard calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) as the “forgotten crystal.” Additionally, it is often missed because of poor diagnostic modalities.
“I do not think it is the ‘forgotten crystal.’ I think we do see patients with it. It is common. It is potentially as treatable as gout or rheumatoid arthritis if we could identify some directable targets,” she said.
Rosenthal said one challenge of this disease is the nomenclature, which not all rheumatologists use the terms synonymously. The new nomenclature, which was based on EULAR 2011 guidelines, suggests one refer to the crystals as CPP crystals and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) refers to CPP deposition. Acute CPP crystal arthritis is the recommended term for pseudogout and chronic CPP crystal arthritis is the recommended term for the other, non-acute forms of CPPD, she said.
“One of the challenges in the field at this point is to make sure we all use terminology that we all understand and is relatively uniform,” Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal said CPPD is a common cause of acute and chronic arthritis and is often undetected. About 25% of patients with osteoarthritis will have calcium crystal in the synovial fluid. She also said the prevalence of pseudogout is relatively unknown.
“We need better and more accurate detection methods, as well as more uniform nomenclature in this disease,” she said.
In addition, Rosenthal said more effective therapies involve understanding the mechanisms of CPPD crystal formation, which may result in the identification of “druggable” therapeutic targets. – by Kristine Houck, MA, ELS
Reference:
Rosenthal AK. Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (pseudogout): Update on associated conditions and therapies. Presented at: Congress of Clinical Rheumatology; April 27-20, 2017; Destin, Fla.
Disclosure: Rosenthal reports no relevant financial disclosures.