Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about Pseudogout. And you can find written notes on this topic at zero tofinals.com

slash pseudogout or in the rheumatology section of the Zero to Fin finals medicine book. So let's get straight into it.

Pseudogout is a crystal arthropathy caused by calcium pyrophosphate crystals.

So crystal refers to the crystals that develop within the joint

and arthropathy refers to pathology within the

joint. Calcium carbonate crystals are deposited in the joint, and this causes joint problems,

and pseudogout is also known as chondrocalcinosis. So how does it present? Well a typical presentation of pseudogout is in an older adult

with a hot, swollen and painful stiff knee. Other joints that can commonly be affected are the shoulders,

the wrists and the hips. It can be a chronic condition and affect multiple joints.

It can also be asymptomatic and picked up incidentally when they're doing an x-ray for another

reason.

You can see the typical changes of pseudogout or chondrocalcinosis, but the patient doesn't

have symptoms of this condition.

So how do we diagnose it?

Well, in any patient presenting with a hot, painful and swollen joint,

the first thing you need to think of is septic arthritis,

and this needs to be excluded,

as it's a medical emergency that's joint and life-threatening.

Sudogout tends to be milder in presentation when compared with gout or septic arthritis.

To establish a definitive diagnosis, the joint needs to be aspirated to take a sample of the synovial fluid,

and then the aspirated fluid will show no bacterial culture

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