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Seven to 22% of patients with agammaglobulinemia develop joint manifestations consisting of septic arthritis or aseptic arthritis of unclear pathogenesis. Intravenous gammaglobulin therapy seems effective on the latter condition but is burdensome and expensive. We report the case of a patient with common variable immunodeficiency and aseptic oligoarthritis in which minocycline therapy was effective in relieving the joint symptoms.

Synovial cysts of the shoulder are rare. The case described illustrates the particular problems encountered at this site. As at other joints, these cysts appear during arthropathies of various types: degenerative or inflammatory (rheumatoid arthritis). They are often associated with rupture of the rotator cuff. Their essential characteristic is an expansive and recurrent tendency which leads to striking giant swellings, capable of causing vascular compression. Treatment involves surgical excision. This suffices when the cyst does not communicate with the joint cavity. In contrast, when there is a breach in the capsule through which the cyst derives its synovial fluid supply, repair is necessary to prevent recurrence.

The authors reviewed the files of male patients who have been hospitalized over a 12 year period for a rheumatoid-factor negative arthritis beginning after age 50. Polymyalgia rheumatica, psoriasis or crystal-induced arthritis were excluded. The remaining 105 observations were classified according to published criteria in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), reactive arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Twenty-nine patients had RA and 29 had AS with equal numbers of axial and peripheral types. Four patients had reactive arthritis, one of them had also AS. Forty-four patients had "unclassified arthritis". Among the latter, 14 were B27 positive, 21 were B27 negative, 9 were not typed. Some features were more frequent in B27+ patients: an assymetrical oligoarthritis of the lower limbs with minimal signs of inflammation at synovial analysis or at synovial biopsy; frequent unilateral edema; marked, constitutional signs; very high ESR. Nine patients, all B27+, met the diagnostic criteria of spondylarthropathy. B27 typing thus appears relevant to the classification of late-onset, seronegative rhumatisms.