On Arthropathic Psoriasis: X-Ray Peculiarities

A radiographic study of the hands, using the method of optical enlargement or ‘microradioscopy’, was carried out on a group of 58 psoriatic patients suffering from different clinical forms of the disease, but without clinical symptoms of arthropathy. A significant statistical incidence for the following lesions was revealed: (a) focal discontinuity and irregularity of the tuft cortical, similar to a nail-stroke; (b) focal lamellar thickening of the periosteum; (c) small intraspongous geodes; (d) increase of the intracortical striae; (e) small juxta-articular erosions. The radiological aspect of the hands, characterized by monolateral and variously combined lesions (with the almost constant presence of the erosions of the tuft cortical) is characteristic, enough to be recognized as a marker of the disease. The authors assume that psoriasis is a systemic disease characterized by accelerated turnover, and that cutaneous and bone lesions represent a different clinical expression of this same biological process.