Prevalence of Calcified Meniscal Cartilage in Elderly Persons

Abstract

SINCE 1933 sporadic reports have described roentgenographically evident calcification of the articular cartilage and menisci,^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8} but in the last two years this finding has received considerable attention as a cardinal, if not pathognomonic, feature of a condition known as chondrocalcinosis articularis or pseudogout. This syndrome, first described by Zitnan and Sitaj⁹ in 1960, is manifested by episodes of acute monoarticular inflammation of the larger joints that are in many ways similar to that encountered in gout.^{10 11 12} Although hyperuricemia is occasionally present the syndrome is differentiated from true gout by the finding of crystals of calcium pyrophosphate in aspirated synovial fluid . . .