Hyperostotic spondylosis and diabetes mellitus.

Forestier and Rotes-Querol (1950) described a disease of the spinal column, occurring mostly in elderly persons and frequently mistaken for ankylosing spondylitis, which they designated "hyperostose ankylosante vertebrale senile". The clinical manifestations of this disease are characterized by a decreased mobility of the spine, caused by bony outgrowths bridging the anterior and lateral faces ofthe vertebral bodies and extending across the intervertebral space. A typical post mortem specimen is shown in Fig. 1 (opposite). This disease was described long ago by Wenzel (1824), Rokitansky (1856), and Bechterew (1899). It was mentioned as "moniliform hyperostosis of the right side of the thoracic spinal column" by Meyer and Forster (1938) and Oppenheimer (1942). Lacapere, Delaville, and Drieux (1954) called it "spondylorheostosis"; in 1949 Lacapere had used the term "vertebral melorheostosis". Forestier and Certonciny (1956) discarded the adjective "senile" after the condition had been found in younger people. Ott (1953) used the term "hyperostotic spondylosis".