Calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposition disease and other crystal deposition diseases.

A number of cells, chemotactic factors, and inflammatory mediators are implicated in the complex mechanisms underlying crystal-mediated inflammation. Interleukin-8, released from mononuclear cells that have been exposed to urate and other crystals, is a potent chemotaxin and activator of neutrophils. Experimental and clinical observations suggest that joint movements, local biomechanical factors, and previous joint damage may play a role in influencing the intensity of microcrystalline synovitis and the distribution of articular and periarticular crystal deposits in both calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease and gout. There are rare reports of extra-articular calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition in tendons, bursae, dura mater, and ligamentum flavum (with radiculomyelopathy) and of massive "tumoral," tophuslike, periarticular calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposits. Synovial fluid levels of ATP, the main substrate for nucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase ectoenzyme, which cleaves ATP-releasing inorganic pyrophosphate, are higher in patients with calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease than in those with other arthritides, and the levels correlate with inorganic pyrophosphate concentrations. Further reports of acute calcific periarthritis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (hydroxyapatite pseudopodagra) in young women have been described. The mitogenic response of fibroblasts to stimulation with basic calcium phosphate crystals is accompanied by induction and secretion of collagenase and neutral proteases, implicating a role for the crystals in the pathogenesis of both synovial proliferation and joint damage in chronic basic calcium phosphate crystal-associated arthropathy. Subcutaneous cholesterol crystal deposition with tophus formation is extremely rare and has been described in a patient with scleroderma and calcinosis cutis.