[Destructive spondylarthropathy in dialysis patients]

Back pain and a cervicobrachial syndrome, as well as progressive sensory and motor deficits as far as symptoms of paraplegia, developed in two dialysis patients two and five years after the start of dialysis. One was a 60-year-old woman with pyelonephritis, the other a 55-year-old man with glomerulonephritis. There were typical radiological signs of destructive spondylarthropathy (narrowed intervertebral spaces and slippage of the vertebral bodies). The female patient required several operations (spondylothesis and orthothesis) and both patients received daily 10,000 IU vitamin D and 3-4 g calcium carbonate. In the woman the destructive process no longer progressed one year after onset of symptoms, but she still required many analgesics. She died three months later of circulatory failure. The man died four weeks after the onset of symptoms from purulent meningitis. At autopsy only renal fibrous ostitis was still demonstrable. Amyloidosis resulting from an increase in beta 2-microglobulin level were excluded by both histological and immunohistochemical examinations.