Has anyone with spondylitis or psoriatic arthritis had adhesive capsulitis?

[acousmetre]

Hello,

I was diagnosed with psoriatic spondylitis/arthritis at the beginning of the year, relating to an arthritic elbow, uveitis, mild psoriasis on hands and mild sacroiliitis. Around the same time I started developing pain in my right shoulder and restricted movement and pain when reaching behind my back and reaching vertically.

Finally had some imaging done recently, an MRI, which showed T2 hypersignal of the periarticular and subcoracoid triangle which the radiologist said could suggest adhesive capsulitis. Reading about it, the clinical symptoms seem to match mine perfectly.

What I've not found though is much information on adhesive capsulitis being related to spondylitis.

Have any fellow sufferers had adhesive capsulitis? Also and if so, did biologics help (I'm 2 months into a treatment with golimumab)?

From what I've read, mostly, adhesive capsulitis gets related to things like trauma or diseases like diabetes and hyper and hypothyroidism. Thyroid issues may be relevant in my case since I had a thyroidectomy some years ago and take artificial hormones. These though are usually within the correct limits when I've had my blood tested.

If anyone knows anything about adhesive capsulitis, please reply. I'll be a couple of months before I get to visit the rheumatologist again. I see the endocrinologist next month. So, I'm curious.

Thanks and all the best!

[Frances_UK]

Hello. Yes. I have PsA / spondyloarthritis and had this, frozen shoulder, while I was still in the process of being diagnosed. I didn't know of any link with PsA and thought it was more hormone related - there is a strong link with thyroid problems. Obviously this won't apply to you, but it is also linked with menopause in women.

I wasn't on biologics then, so I can't say if they'd help but if it's related to thyroid I don't see that it would.

I had it in one shoulder for about 18 months and then it went away on its own without treatment. But weeks later it resurfaced in the other shoulder. The second time only lasted about 6 months. But it is agony. I'd forget about it and then reach to pull a plug out of the wall or something and get that excruciating attack.

It's very difficult to get any kind of treatment for it in the UK beyond physiotherapy. You might be offered an injection if it persists. They could operate but should be a last resort as it can just return again. And here it would probably have healed by the time you get your surgery. Have you looked up physio exercises you can do for it?

[acousmetre in reply to Frances_UK]

Thanks Frances. Yes, I'm hoping to start some physio sessions in August at the hospital that diagnosed the spondyloarthritis. That was booked before I had any imaging done of the shoulder. Otherwise I've been doing gentle stretching exercises in the pool when I can. Not sure if they're helping much. I know what you mean about certain movements causing a lot of pain.

[Runrig01]

So I have ankylosing spondylitis, I went for 25yrs undiagnosed and had a lot of damage from uncontrolled inflammation. When I was 51 I was diagnosed with aggressive AS and quickly put on biologics. I was already on steroids and an nsaid. I developed a frozen shoulder, which initially my rheumatologist was skeptical could be related to my AS. I had an ultrasound of my shoulder, which showed tendonitis throughout the shoulder which had resulted in the frozen shoulder. I was already on biologics when this occurred. I had a steroid injection in my shoulder which gave me relief for about a year, then it returned so I had a second injection. That was in 2018 and it has given me very little trouble. Adhesive capsular is is more commonly known as frozen shoulder. I have also had similar issues in both knees, where the tendons have calcified and resulted in subluxation of both knee caps, as well as 2 toes in my left foot, where the tendons were inflamed, once the inflammation settled the two toes subluxed as well, due to them partially calcifying and losing elasticity. Each time my rheumatologist has been skeptical till ultrasounds or MRIs have confirmed it. I also had physio on the shoulder, and thankfully it normally responds to non surgical treatment, but takes many many months to settle. It may be the menopause was partly responsible for my issues, as my AS went into a permanent flare at the same time as I started the menopause.

[acousmetre in reply to Runrig01]

Thanks Maureen. That's good that you got some relief from the injections. I had no idea that they could have such long lasting effect. It does seem that frozen shoulder is more common in women, then again, so are thyroid problems. I did see one article that makes a connection between axial spondyloarthritis and frozen shoulder: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/321... . Most though relate to other causes. The MRI did also show some light supraspinatus tendinitis, which i forgot to mention and perhaps lends itself more to PsA.