The spine in idiopathic haemochromatosis.

The development of a specific arthropathy is now a well recognized complication of idiopathic haemochromatosis (Schumacher, 1964; de Seze, Hubault, Kahn, Welfling, Jaffres, Mitrovic, and Solnica, 1966; 'Hamilton, Williams, Barlow, and Smith, 1968); one of the characteristic features found in the majority of affected joints is the presence of calcium pyrophosphate deposits in both hyaline and fibrocartilage. Further studies have shown a direct, but not necessarily causal, relationship between hyaline cartilage calcification and the joint damage (Atkins, McIver, Smith, Hamilton, and Williams, 1970). Chondrocalcinosis due to calcium pyrophosphate deposition, in the absence of other disease, was first described by McCarty, Kohn, and Faires (1962) and by Zitfian and Sit'aj (1963). Sit'aj and Zitnian (1967) also reported calcification of the cervical and lumbar intervertebral discs in a long term study of 39 patients, some of whom gradually developed stiffening of the spine. Calcification of intervertebral discs is sometimes found in hyperparathyroidism, 'where chondrocalcinosis of peripheral joints has been described (Bywaters, 1959; Zvaifler, Reefe, and Bl_ck, 1962; Bywaters, Dixon, and Scott, 1963), and for many years disc calcification has also been known to occur in ochronosis. g.