Diagnosis | Causes of finger arthrosis

Diagnosis

In the case of the typical symptoms of osteoarthritis, the diagnosis of the disease is usually based on the physical examination. In addition, an X-ray examination can help the doctor to make a diagnosis. The radiologist looks for typical signs such as a narrowing of the joint space, compression of the bone tissue below the cartilage zone, bony attachments on joint surfaces and cysts in the bone tissue. In contrast to rheumatoid arthritis, the laboratory examination of blood samples is usually inconspicuous.

Causes of finger arthrosis

Since finger arthrosis is a degenerative disease, advanced age is the most important risk factor of all. In younger people, finger arthrosis, like most other forms of arthrosis, does not usually occur. The main manifestation age is usually beyond the age of fifty.

Like most other joints of our body, the middle and end joints of the fingers are a hinge-like connection of our finger bones. A joint capsule of connective tissue connects the two ends of the bones with each other. Its inner side is lined with the so-called synovialis, the joint skin.

This produces a small amount of clear fluid (synovia), which acts as a lubricant for the joint and is responsible for supplying nutrients to the joint cartilage, which has no blood vessels of its own. The articular cartilage covers the ends of the bones and, as a smooth layer, ensures that the joint surfaces slide smoothly. In the course of life, damage to the cartilage can occur, causing it to roughen, crack and become thinner.The load that occurs when the joint is moved can no longer be evenly distributed over the joint surfaces, and the wear and tear on the cartilage increases.

The underlying bone reacts to the unusual load with growth. It becomes thicker in the most heavily loaded areas, and in the peripheral areas the bone attachments that can be seen in the X-ray image can occur. As the joint wears down, the synovialis also becomes irritated, and reacts by increasing the production of synovial fluid.

This leads to joint swelling and inflammatory activation of the arthrosis, which further worsens the nutritional situation of the cartilage and further accelerates the degeneration process. In addition to age as the most important risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis, gender plays a significant role. Women after menopause are more frequently affected by osteoarthritis of the finger joints than men of the same age.

The causes of this are not yet fully understood, but hormonal influences are suspected. Since osteoarthritis often occurs more frequently in families, a genetic predisposition is also being discussed. Joint degeneration in close relatives increases the personal risk of also becoming ill.

The fact that uneven loading and joint malpositions favour the development of arthrosis is the reason why the disease occurs much more frequently in knee and hip joints, where greater forces are at work, than in the hand. However, non-physiological stress in the finger joints, such as that which occurs in daily manual work, can also contribute to the development of arthritic changes. If the arthrosis is promoted by another basic disease, it is called secondary arthrosis.

Among these promoting factors are metabolic diseases such as diabetes or gout, in which uric acid crystals are deposited in the joint. Rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory, autoimmunologically caused joint disease, leads to joint wear and tear and thus to secondary arthrosis, even if it must be distinguished from arthrosis as an independent clinical picture. A rarer cause, which also favors the occurrence of arthrosis, is the hemophilia, which can lead to joint bleeding and joint damage. However, these occur mostly in the larger joints such as the hip and knee joints.