Onset of erosive osteoarthritis in a teenage girl

Erosive osteoarthritis is a disorder that predominantly affects the hands of postmenopausal or middle aged women. Ages usually range from 30 to 83 years. Although the etiology of erosive osteoarthritis is not known, a lack of estrogen hormones has been implicated in the pathogenesis. We report a patient with onset of symptoms at age 16 and a diagnosis at age 21. She has aggressive inflammatory involvement of the distal interphalangeal joints and characteristic radiographic changes with central erosions. She is not postmenopausal nor does she have any conditions that are believed to be possible associations with erosive osteoarthritis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the youngest reported patient with erosive osteoarthritis in the literature.