A critical review of the available evidence on the diagnosis and clinical features of CPPD: do we really need imaging?

Imaging has been playing an important role in the pathogenetic and clinical characterisation of many rheumatic diseases, especially in the most recent years with the advent of many new, highly technological and promising techniques. Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) benefited also from these new techniques, most of which can readily identify calcium crystals. Nowadays, imaging is used mainly to identify crystals in joints but given the complexity of CPPD, imaging should be used with an “holistic” approach in order to gain insights in the pathogenesis, spectrum of clinical manifestations and natural history of the disease. Furthermore, overlap or association of CPPD with other prevalent diseases of the elderly makes the differential diagnosis challenging. In this review, we provide a critical review of the current knowledge on the use of imaging both for the identification of crystals and for its application in clinical practice as an aid for determining the impact of the disease on patients. Key Points • CPPD is a complex disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and understanding of pathogenetic mechanisms and clinical phenotypes is essential for correct characterisation • Imaging has made important advances regarding identification of CPPD in recent years, and new, more sophisticated techniques are under investigation • Imaging has the potential to improve our knowledge on pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes of CPPD • Imaging techniques have to be tested thoroughly for reliability, discrimination and sensitivity to change before they can be implemented in clinical trials.