[Exo- and endomarginal reactions in the hand in diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis, their quantification and age dependence].

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) may lead to three types of reaction in the hand: increased exomarginal bone formation at numerous fibrous insertions, which increase with age, and endomarginal sclerosis which reaches its maximum during adult life, but which regresses partially with increasing age. The third reaction is increased subchondral sclerosis, which also becomes most prominent in middle age and then diminishes. DISH is more frequently seen in the hand than in the spine and in the hand leads to hyperostosis of varying intensity and in different localities. By quantifying the hyperostosis and comparing it with normal, it is possible to characterise the hyperostosis as it affects the hand.