Читать книгу Arthritis For Dummies - Barry Fox - Страница 45

To make matters worse, once your cartilage is damaged, your body can compound the problem if it repairs itself in certain ways. Like injured bone, injured cartilage can overdo the repair process, piling too much new cartilage into a crack or tear. The result is a lumpy, bumpy surface that doesn’t glide smoothly against the cartilage on the opposing bone end. On the other hand, sometimes the cartilage doesn’t repair itself at all, and remains in its damaged state — cracked, pitted, frayed, and even worn-through. Pieces of loose cartilage and/or bone may break off and float freely through the joint fluid. The bone ends, no longer well cushioned, start to rub against each other and can develop bony spurs (osteophytes) that further interfere with smooth joint movement. The joint space narrows, and the entire shape of the joint can change. All this from a little damaged cartilage!

You may hear your doctor use some of these technical terms: eburnation (increased and abnormal bone density), subchondral bone (the bone right below the cartilage), or subchondral cyst (an abnormal pocket of fluid in the bone beneath the cartilage or a bone spur).