Enthesitis Damage & Repair

Given that insertions are sites of high physical stressing they are consequently assocaited with damage. This must be repaired to mantain skeletal integrity. This section discusses enthesis repair in health and disease and will describe both soft tissue and bone changes. Over-zealous repair responses in these structures underlies the pathology that is typically seen in enthesitis associated arthritis.

Overview of Enthesis Damage & Repair

The human skeleton is subject to on-going microfractures and microdamage. This is part of the normal wear and tear process. Whilst other mechanical devices ....

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Enthesis Bone Microdamage

The human skeleton is subject to wear and tear. This leads to microscopic bone fractures or microfractures. These are very small and range from less than one tenth to one half of a millimetre ....

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Fibrocartilage Microdamage

Fibrocartilage is the shocking absorbing tissue at the enthesis insertion site and within the adjacent synovio-entheseal complexes. The high forces being exerted at the ....

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Microscopic Inflammation in Normal Insertions

All parts of the enthesis including the bone and fibrocartilage are prone to injury. The resulting microdamage to the enthesis structures must be repaired to avoid complete failure of the skeleton ....

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New Bone Formation at Normal Entheses

The normal enthesis has a tendency to develop new bone formation with ageing. This manifests as incidental "bony spurs" that are visible on X-rays that are usually ....

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Bone Erosion at Normal Insersions

The purpose of this page is to show how the normal skeleton develops microscopic erosion immediately adjacent to enthesis. This is due to microdamage and usually repairs in healthy subjects ....

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Abnormal Blood vessels at the Enthesis

The fibrocartilagenous attachment site to bone completely lacks a blood supply in health. However, with ageing there is evidence of blood vessel infiltration into insertion sites ....

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Ultrasound of Damage in Normal Insertions

Tissue studies of the enthesis from elderly deceased subjects have shown that microscopic bone cracks, microscopic bone erosions, microscopic fibrocartilage damage, abnormal blood vessel formation and microscopic inflammation ....

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MRI of Damage in Normal Insertions

One might think that people without joint symptoms would have normal MRI scans of their entheses and that only patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) and the allied with Spondyloarthropathies ....

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Enthesis Damage in Spondyloarthropathy

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Enthesis Repair in Spondyloarthropathy

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Enthesis Organ in Spondyloarthropathy

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Fibrocartilage in Spondyloarthritis

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New Bone Formation in Spondyloarthritis

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Bone Erosion in Spondyloarthropathy

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Ultrasound in Spondyloarthropathy

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MRI in Spondyloarthropathy

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