Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), a rare disease that causes back pain similar to that experienced by patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), produces telltale clinical and radiological features that aid proper diagnosis according to a recently released German study.

While this may not be the cast for many AS patients due to the fact that their condition causes inflammatory back pain as opposed to the mechanical discomfort attributed to FOP, it may make distinguishing the source of chronic back pain a more precise science. Currently, AS is often mistaken for many conditions and FOP falls into that same unenviable category.

Written by doctors at University Hospital Schleswig Holstein, Campus Kiel, the study came to the conclusion that somewhat obvious features detectable by both physical examination and radiological tests can lead to a timely diagnosis of FOP.

The study describes an 18-year-old man who presented doctors with lumbar and thoracic back pain. Several indurated masses were visible upon preliminary examination. Doctors noted palpable masses close to the left and right scapula and the thoracic spine. The patient said that the masses did not cause discomfort such as tenderness or inflammation, but did limit range of motion considerably.

Radiographs were taken which showed segmentation of the spinal processes, with heterotopic ossification detected in the lumbar postural muscles and the spinal facet joints were anklyosed. After further testing, ossifications of the muscles of the shoulder girdle were detected and the thoracic spinal processes were anklyosed by massive ossifications of the postural muscles. There were many other symptoms detected after further tests, but the fact that initial in-office tests led to the diagnosis of such a rare condition.

All these findings are typical in the diagnosis of FOP and helps make it distinguishable from other soft tissue ossifications such as Klippel-Feil-syndrome, Still’s disease and AS.

Source www.docguide.com