Current advances in therapies for calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis

Calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystal disease is a common rheumatologic disorder that has received limited attention from the scientific community. This review is aimed at summarizing current evidence for managing CPP disease (CPPD), focusing on recently reported advances.

New data from case series indicate that interleukin-1β inhibitors can help patients with refractory forms of CPPD. Methotrexate, formerly a promising agent, failed to demonstrate benefits in a recent trial, but still merits consideration for some patients. No significant advances on crystal dissolution have been achieved to date. Proper characterization of the CPP crystal disease picture is needed, ruling out the possible coexistence of another persistent arthritis unrelated to the CPP deposition.

Advances on CPP crystal dissolution and establishing definitions of the clinical spectrum of CPPD remain the main challenges for CPP crystal disease management.