Enthesopathy is a disorder you find in the insertion of fascia, tendons, ligaments or articular capsule into bone and it is also product of an inflammatory rheumatic or non-rheumatic disease process. This condition can bring chronic musculoskeletal pain in some patients (Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism 2007). Abnormal ossification or calcification of the ligament or tendon may also developed when one have enthesopathy.
Enthesopathy can be more considered as a symptom or process rather than a disease itself. It can result to conditions like eteropathic arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, spinal arthritis or osteoporosis, septic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis and spondyloarthropathies. Other conditions that may result from enthesopathy although their occurrence is rare are Whipple disease, celiac disease and acne-associated arthritis. In rare cases enthesopathy is also linked as a complication to tendon tears and avulsion fractures.
Enthesopathy is often linked with inflammatory conditions so that risk is high for those who have rheumatic or non-rheumatic inflammatory conditions. It can strike both male and female.
Incidence of enthesopathy cannot be anticipated since it involves a wide range of inflammatory conditions and for the reason that this is not often taken into account as a separate diagnosis in every patient’s record.
Spinal enthesopathy is a form of enthesopathy that affects the spine. It usually occurs in group of disorders which is called spondyloarthropathies which includes conditions like ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel diseases, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis and undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy. Those diseases have conditions in common in relation to HLA-B27, has extra articular features which involves the genitourinary tract, skin and eyes; enthesitis, rheumatoid factor is not present, and familial aggregation occurs.
Diagnosis of such condition includes medical history and physical examination. You can’t really find a specific diagnostic test for spondyliarthropathies although radiographs may help in showing evidence of spondylitis in the lumbar spine and pelvic (Am Fam Physician 2004).