Rheumatic manifestations of endocrine diseases

Musculoskeletal complaints accompanying or as a result of endocrine disorders are common and have been well described. This review re-examines these associations in light of newer information on biology and genetics.

In this article, we describe the recent studies on pathophysiology of the muscular skeletal complaints in endocrine disease. In addition we report on population as well as genetic studies, which address the relationship between endocrine and rheumatologic disease, both of which are autoimmune.

Very often, the presentation of rheumatic manifestations is the initial presentation of endocrine disease. Being aware of the presentation as well as the unique physiology of these complaints will help alert the clinician to an early diagnosis of endocrine disease. In addition understanding whether certain endocrine disease occurs more often in rheumatologic illness will enable the clinician to investigate their occurrence early, leading to earlier intervention and resulting in decreased morbidity from these concomitant illnesses.