in laymens terms please!

rachael86

hello everyone. i just got my copy of the most recent letter my rheumatologist sent to my gp. it was to update him on my latest set of x-rays and here is what he wrote:

chest: normal

pelvis: there is concentric loss of joint space at both with moderate secondary degenerative changes. si joints appear normal.

both knees: no erosions identified. there are also minor degenerative changes bilaterally, especially at the patello-femoral joints. the heights of the medial and lateral joint compartments are only slightly preserved at both knees and there is no evidence of effusions.

forgive me if i sound stupid but ive tried to look it up on the internet but it still makes no sense. can someone explain any of it please? it would be a great help.

skezier

Hi Rachael,

I may be totally wrong here as my training was a long time ago and maybe not that good ingested by me either but I think it basically means that you pelvis is showing signs of arthritis and maybe loss of fluid/cartilage and you knees have not got erosion means the bones are still smooth. I am fairly sure it also means a loss of synovial fluid to some degree and the degeneration round the patella is you knee caps are showing some degeneration.

Please I may be totally wrong and I hope someone better will be along soon.

Don't worry though as it basically means arthritis. Take care, Cris

joanlawson

Hi Rachael

I think you should ask your doctor for a translation instead of trying to guess. Looking things up on the internet can be a bit dangerous if you don't fully understand.

Joan

mistywillow

rachael86 wrote:

hello everyone. i just got my copy of the most recent letter my rheumatologist sent to my gp. it was to update him on my latest set of x-rays and here is what he wrote:

chest: normal

pelvis: there is concentric loss of joint space at both with moderate secondary degenerative changes. si joints appear normal.

both knees: no erosions identified. there are also minor degenerative changes bilaterally, especially at the patello-femoral joints. the heights of the medial and lateral joint compartments are only slightly preserved at both knees and there is no evidence of effusions.

forgive me if i sound stupid but ive tried to look it up on the internet but it still makes no sense. can someone explain any of it please? it would be a great help.

Hi there
I just wrote all this out for you in normal language and my cat has just deleted it!!!!! so here we go again!

Pelvis. Loss of joint space.
When wear and tear occurs in the joints for whatever reason the cartilage lining the joints becomes thinner allowing the bones to come closer together. hence loss of joint space.
Degenerative changes take the form of extra spurs of bone or slight worn away bits as the wear and tear continues against the background of your body trying to make up for this by making extra bits of bone around the joint margins.

SI joints are the back part of your pelvis and they are OK

Knee joints dont have erosions, ie worn away bits.
There are minor degenerative changes (signs of wear and tear might be that the joint margins are not so smooth as they should be) at both your patella/femoral joints. These are where your knee caps, the mobile bone at the front of your knee, attaches to your knees. There is a slight loss of the joint space. (see above) but no worn away bits.
Effusion is when there is fluid etc due to the inflammatory process, and shows up as swelling when it is quite bad but lesser effusions can show up on X ray when you cant see it yourself. They say that you do not have this which is good.

Basically to sum up your knees are not too bad but there are some arthritic changes in your pelvis.

Ask your GP to actually show you your Xray and point these things out to you then it will become more clear. I am sure he/she will be happy to do this.
Hope this helps
Gillx