[Inflammatory arthritis of the elderly]

Inflammatory arthritis of the elderly have growned new interest because of their frequency and also because new syndromes or subsets of arthritis of the young adults have been recently described. The originality of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis beginning after 70 years old is that management and prognosis are not different from early onset a RA. Various subsets of mild seronegative arthritis of the elderly that pose diagnostic problems with polymyalgia rheumatism (PMR) are also described. New syndromes, at least partly, presents as an original expression of late onset arthritis. Theses syndromes are characterized by rapid onset of arthritis with pitting non inflammatory oedema (RS3PE, described by McCarthy). Same syndromes resistant to steroids will reveal hemopathy or metastastic carcinoma. Late onset of inflammatory spondylarthropathy presenting as undifferentiated arthritis, fever, loss of weight and large oedemia is probably the most original presentation of arthritis specific to old males.