Amyloid in osteoarthritic hip joints. A pathoanatomical and histological investigation of femoral head cartilage.

A total of 116 osteoarthritic femoral heads were studied with regard to the relationship between amyloid deposits in the cartilage and osteoarthritic changes. All the femoral heads were found to be deformed and only 10 were covered by cartilage over the whole surface. Sixty-five per cent of the femoral heads showed amyloid degeneration of the cartilage surface. The amount of amyloid did not correlate with the extent of the erosion. Neither was there a significant correlation between the amyloid degeneration on the one hand and fibrillation and flaking of the cartilage surface on the other. A reduction in the amount of chondroitin sulphate was observed in all 116 femoral heads to varying degrees, but no correlation with amyloid could be demonstrated. Thus, in the present study no correlation between the morphological and histochemical degrees of osteoarthritis and amyloid has been found. Six out of seven femoral heads with pyrophosphate deposits in the cartilage also contained amyloid.