Paget’s Disease
Paget’s disease is a skeletal disorder associated with characteristic clinical, roentgenographic, and pathologic changes, the hallmark of which is intense activation of osteoblasts and osteoclasts and resultant abnormal remodeling of bone (
71,
72).
It has been estimated that 1 million people in the United States have Paget’s disease, and 10 to 40 percent of these have one or more family members affected. Paget’s disease preferentially targets the axial skeleton:
Pelvis 70 percent
Femur 55 percent
Lumbar spine 53 percent
Skull 42 percent
Tibia 32 percent.
The diagnosis of Paget’s disease is usually made on a radiographic image (focal osteolysis, coarsening trabecular and cortical bone, and bone enlargement). Bone scans best demonstrate, if present, lesions at other sites, Paget’s disease being very hot on technetium scanning, reflecting both increased bone formation and increased vascularization.
The abnormal results of laboratory tests seen in Paget’s disease are manifestations of high tissue turnover in skeletal bone; elevation of alkaline phosphatase reflects an increase in osteoblast activity, and excretion of collagen in the urine, detected as urinary hydroxyproline or pyridoline cross-links, is a manifestation of the high rate of breakdown of bone.
Because serum markers of bone turnover show less biologic variability than urinary markers, serum bone alkaline phosphatase and procollagen 1 N-terminal peptide (PINP) seem to best correlate with activity in Paget’s disease. Urinary N-telopeptide (NTX) has been used as a marker of resorptive activity in the disease and has been correlated with serum pyridinium cross-links.
Paget’s disease has been well described since the late 19th century, although paleontologic studies and paintings such as the one by Metsys, dating from the 15th century, suggest that it existed long before Paget’s original description (
73) (
Fig. 4.14). Paget’s disease, a common disorder, is rarely seen before the age of 40 years. However, a rare condition with the roentgenographic and histopathologic features of Paget’s disease, termed hyperphosphatasia, probably unassociated, is seen in childhood. Paget’s disease primarily affects older people and is found in as many as 10 percent of persons in certain geographic distributions by the eighth decade. It is more common in men and particularly in whites. Estimated to involve 2 to 3 percent of the U.S. population older than the age of 50 years, it is common in England and regions settled by European migration, such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa (
74).
Paget’s disease is rarely encountered in China, Japan, Iran, India, Scandinavia, Africa, or the Middle East (
75). The identification of viral inclusions resembling an RNA-type virus resembling paramyxoviruses such as measles has raised interesting theories, as yet unproven, of a viral association. BCL-2, c-fos, and interleukin 6 are highly elevated in Paget’s disease. Some have suggested an association with pet or livestock ownership (birds, dogs, cats, and cattle) (
75). In one large Italian study, a statistically significant association with rural (vs. urban) residence and dog ownership was shown (
76).
Inherited as an autosomal dominant trait with high penetrance, a linkage with chromosome 18q near the polymorphic locus D18S42 has been shown. Recurrent mutations of the gene encoding sequestosome 1 (also known as SQSTM1 or p62) have been documented (
77).
In fact, genomic scans of pagetic families have identified 10 different mutations in the gene encoding sequestosome 1. Because p62 is a protein that mediates a diverse array of cellular signaling pathways involving molecules such as RIP, TrKA, TRAF6, and aPKCs and their response to various stimuli such as tumor necrosis factor α(TNF-α), interleukin 1, and the receptor activator of nuclear factor κB (RANKL) (
78), the frenetic bone signaling that these mutated signals imply makes credible sense to the frenetic bone remodeling observed histologically.
Like many orthopaedic conditions, it is far more common as an asymptomatic condition. Symptoms may be diverse (
Table 4.5).
In general, Paget’s disease may be characterized as a focal disease with sharp demarcation between normal and affected sites. There is slow spread through the marrow and bone with rare extension across joint spaces. Once established in a patient, new foci are generally not seen (
79). However, Paget’s disease can recur in an old site after therapy and can be transferred from one part of the skeleton to another as a result of autogenous bone grafting (
80).
The distribution of Paget’s disease has been studied by x-ray surveys and bone scans. Bone scans are more sensitive than x-ray studies because technetium localizes in areas of increased mineralization, the hallmark of bone remodeling seen in Paget’s disease (
81) (
Table 4.6). In addition to asymptomatic patients, approximately 10 percent of patients have monostotic involvement; this group usually responds to treatment. Polyostotic Paget’s disease frequently involves vertebrae, and these patients are particularly at risk for tumors and complications, such as high-output cardiac failure and neurologic changes.
The clinical feature of Paget’s disease in up to 40 percent of patients is bone pain, with areas involved often being warm and tender (
Fig. 4.15). If the end of a bone around a joint is affected, arthritis may be the presenting symptom. Because of mechanical weakness resulting from the abnormal deposition of woven bone, cortical remodeling, and intense osteoclastic resorption, pagetic bone is prone
to fracture, and, in fact, fracture may be the presenting symptom. Other associated changes include calcific periarthritis and uremia, neurologic symptoms including deafness, vascular steal syndromes, platybasia (flattening of the base of the skull), and basilar invagination. Immobilization can lead to hypercalciuria, hypercalcemia, and nephrolithiasis. Roentgenographically, the changes are variable, depending on the stage and site of involvement (
Fig. 4.16). Purely lytic lesions in Paget’s disease have been described, particularly in the skull, so-called osteitis circumscripta. In the initial stages of Paget’s disease in long bones, a lytic wedge advances along the cortex of the bone. Biopsies at this stage may show predominantly osteoclastic bone resorption mimicking hyperparathyroidism. Eventually, the resorptive phase progresses to one of intense bone remodeling, including osteoblastic bone formation. The resultant deterioration of the normal architecture of the bone leads to roentgenographically detectable coarsening of cortical bone, lack of demarcation between cortical and trabecular bone, and other such findings. The bone scan in this phase is intensely hot (
Fig. 4.17). In many patients, Paget’s disease after a prolonged period of time enters a dormant phase, with little detectable osteoblast or osteoclast activity. In this stage, the disorder can be diagnosed by profound thickening and irregular cement lines throughout the involved bones. Fracture after biopsy of osteolytic Paget’s disease (
82,
83) and acute osteolysis after surgery potentially predisposing the patient to pathologic fracture (
84) have been described.
Classic radiographic manifestations of Paget’s disease involving the skeleton are bone deformity, thickening of cortical bone, and coarsening of the bone trabeculae. The disease most often involves the inner portion of the pelvis (iliopectineal line) and the calvaria of the skull. Any site of the skeleton may be involved, and at times just a small portion of a bone (e.g., the spinous process of a vertebra) may be involved by Paget’s disease.
Excluding tumor and fracture, Paget’s disease is the only condition in which the skeletal imaging is very abnormal but the fatty marrow is intact on a T1 MRI signal.
In the long bones, Paget’s disease always extends from the epiphyses to the diaphysis. Paget’s disease can extend from the trochanters of the femur to the shaft of the bone without involvement of the femoral head. The same applies to the humerus and its tuberosities and other apophyses in the skeleton.
The involved bone is usually enlarged, deformed in shape, and sclerotic. In a small group of patients, the involved area of the bone is seen mainly as a lucent lesion. The diseased area, as it progresses toward the shaft, has a pointed edge (which has been compared with an
advancing flame or the tip of an arrow). The deformity in the contour of the bone is the consequence of fractures (complete or incomplete). Fractures in bones with Paget’s disease heal in an irregular fashion, resulting in deformities (osteitis deformans). The deformity in the contour of the end of the bone can at times result in nonunion, narrowing of the adjacent joint space, and osteophyte formation. This form of degenerative joint disease has been labeled Paget’s arthritis, and it can occur when only one bone is involved, even though it is more common when both bones surrounding a joint are affected.
Paget’s disease in the spine usually causes increased density in the periphery of the vertebral body and accentuation of the trabeculae in the central portion of the body. This has been referred to as a “window frame” appearance. The vertebral body is usually larger in the anteroposterior diameter or taller than those in the adjacent, uninvolved vertebrae. A vertebra involved by Paget’s disease should be differentiated from an “ivory vertebra,” seen in cases of lymphoma as a homogeneously dense vertebral body without deformity in its contour, and also from vertebral hemangiomas, which are characterized by thickened vertical trabeculae without the peripheral sclerosis seen in Paget’s disease. Thickening of the vertebral body and neural arch in Paget’s disease can cause spinal stenosis.
The calvaria is the portion of the skull most commonly involved by Paget’s disease. Usually, the diploic cavity between the inner and outer tables is widened. One or more areas of sclerosis may be present. These areas of sclerosis at times are poorly outlined, leading to a comparison with “cotton balls.” Often, instead of areas of sclerosis, the involvement of the calvaria results in one or more areas of lucency (osteoporosis circumscripta). Lytic Paget’s disease in the peripheral skeleton is rare; however, osteoporosis circumscripta is not an unusual finding.
The base of the skull may also be involved. Sclerosis and bone thickening in the mastoids can result in deafness and loss of balance. Blindness can be caused by entrapment of the optic nerves by bones affected by Paget’s disease.
Paget’s disease is characterized grossly by hyperemia and architectural distortion of the normal contour and internal structure of bone. Hyperemia may lead to high-output cardiac failure and the feeling of warmth in clinically involved sites within bone. An increase in subchondral vessels has been noted in patients with Paget’s disease in comparison with other arthritic-type patients. Rongstad et al. (
85) estimated vascularity to be increased sixfold in a resected femur.
The bones in Paget’s disease are grossly abnormal on visualization and lead to clinically discernible conditions: joint incongruity and degenerative joint disease, osseous deformities of the skull, protrusio acetabuli, coxa vara, and femoral bowing (
Fig. 4.18).
Microscopically, Pagetic bone foci are sharply demarcated from normal bone.
The histopathologic features in Paget’s disease are dependent on the stage. In early Paget’s disease, identified by acute lysis of bone as seen roentgenographically in the advancing lytic wedge, osteoclastic resorption may predominate and create an appearance remarkably similar to the microscopic changes seen in hyperparathyroidism (
81). In active, ongoing Paget’s disease, the constellation of findings is characteristic (
Fig. 4.19). There is intense remodeling of bone as manifested by increased osteoblast and osteoclast activity. Normally, less than 20 percent of bone surface shows cellular remodeling. This is greatly increased in Paget’s disease (
86) (
Table 4.7), revealing bone
formation and bone resorption. Bone trabeculae become both thick and thin. Cortical bone remodeling is also irregular, with loss of the distinction between cortical and trabecular bone. Osteoclasts are increased in number, large, and markedly multinucleated.
Cement lines, the perimeter markers of previously resorbed bone units (
Figs. 1.12 and
1.13), reflect the abnormal remodeling and are abnormally wavy, irregular, and curliform. Pagetic cement lines are an indication of the woven bone produced in this disease (
Fig. 4.20). Woven bone is characterized by irregularly oriented collagen, seen under polarized light in states of increased bone remodeling. Although characteristic of Paget’s disease, it is also seen in embryonic bone and in both primary and secondary bone tumors.
Osteoclast remodeling, fibrosis, and cement lines may be quite dramatic in Paget’s disease and are the hallmark in active disease (
Fig. 4.21). In inactive disease, the diagnosis may be obscure. On biopsy, the only hallmark is the presence of curliform cement
lines (
Fig. 4.22) in now “burned-out” dense and (relatively) inactive tissue.
Paget’s disease may involve one or more bones. Interestingly, within a given bone, the involvement may be patchy (
Fig. 4.23), which may lead to false-negative biopsy results in cases that are roentgenographically obvious.
Biopsy is usually indicated to confirm the diagnosis in symptomatic individuals when the diagnosis is uncertain. Patients may present with anemia, and pathologists evaluating biopsy specimens of the ilium, sternum, or pelvis for hematologic assessment should not overlook the fact that bone may reveal subtle abnormal remodeling changes indicative of Paget’s disease. The large multinucleated osteoclasts of Paget’s disease are reminiscent of virally induced changes seen in other illnesses, such as paramyxovirus infection (measles) and cytomegalic virus infection, giving indirect support to the current etiologic theory for Paget’s disease, which is a measles-type viral infection. In fact, viral
inclusions have been shown in osteoclasts in Paget’s disease by Rebel et al. (
87) and Reddy et al. (
88). However, osteoclast inclusions are by no means specific and have been shown in giant cells in giant-cell tumors (
89), pyknodysostosis (
90), osteopetrosis (
91), familial expansile osteolysis (
92), and in macrophage-like cells in primary oxalosis (
93).
Viral candidates for initiating Paget’s disease have included measles virus, canine distemper virus, respiratory syncytial virus, simian virus 5, and parainfluenza virus type 3. To date, studies have failed to culture a virus (
94).
Hoyland et al. (
95) have proposed a paramyxovirus-linked modulation of osteoclast activity by interleukin 6 in genetically susceptible hosts.
Most recently, Reddy et al. (
88) have shown by reverse transcriptase and polymerase chain reaction techniques that measles virus nucleocapsid transcripts are detected in pagetic bone marrow mononuclear cells. They further identified measles virus transcripts in very early osteoclast precursors (the colony-forming unit granulocyte-macrophage, or CFU-GM, progenitor cells). This supports the argument of a virally induced osteoclast dysfunction. But why is Paget’s disease a local disease? Here, microenvironmental factors, such as cytokine expression, may be critical.
The numerous ultrastructural studies performed on osteoclasts in Paget’s disease have created the following profile (
87):
-
Osteoclasts are irregularly shaped with multiple extensions and much infolding of cytoplasmic membrane. The infolding presumptively indicates abnormally increased surface activity and motility of these cells.
-
The presence of calcified fragments within the cytoplasm under the ruffled border shows that the cells may actually phagocytose whole pieces of bone, which is a highly abnormal form of bone resorption.
-
The presence of vesicular mitochondria suggests a high turnover rate for osteoclasts.
-
Nuclei are highly polymorphic and frequently contain many nucleoli. Nuclear inclusions are present in several nuclei per osteoclast and are filament-like structures. Some are microcylindric in shape. They are usually grouped together in parallel bundles and sometimes packed in paracrystalline arrays.
-
Cytoplasmic inclusions can be filament-like structures, some of which are organized into bundles, like those found in the nucleus. No paracrystalline arrays, however, are usually found in the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm may also contain envacuolated glycogen.
-
In the fibrous tissue surrounding the osteoclasts in Paget’s disease, cells similar to mononuclear osteoprogenitor cells are often found. These are often massed together and contain no nuclear inclusions.
The treatment rationale for Paget’s disease is based on the ability of drugs to blunt or slow down the bone remodeling activity (
72). Because osteoclasts are known to have receptors for calcitonin, the drug had been widely used. However, bisphosphonates are currently the first treatment of choice and are indicated in patients with pain localized to an affected site in which the presumption is that the pain is related to increased metabolic activity. Although evidence that long-term suppression of bone turnover remains controversial, bisphosphonates can, in the short term, normalize bone turnover.
The therapies of choice for treating Paget’s disease are the three most potent bisphosphonates: risedronat (Actonel), alendronate (Fosamax), pamidronate (Aredia), and zoledronic acid (Reclast). Reclast and Aredia are intravenously administered. Bisphosphonates (such as alendronate and etidronate) most likely produce their effect by binding bone mineral, thereby inhibiting both the formation and dissolution of calcium phosphate crystals (
96). Bisphosphonates have a high binding affinity for hydroxyapatite crystals and are therefore selectively concentrated in bone, a feature that makes them excellent bone-scanning agents and clinically useful in the treatment of heterotopic ossification.
Bisphosphonates also have profound effects on osteoclasts. They accelerate osteoclast apoptosis and cause the ruffled borders of the cell to become rounded and dislodged from the bone surface (see
Chapter 3).
Bisphosphonates, it has been suggested, are not without risk (
97). Oversuppression of bone resorption may be deleterious, and recent cases of osteonecrosis of the jaw associated with the use of bisphosphonates in treating osteoporosis need further investigation.
Calcitonin also inhibits bone turnover, but is less commonly used due to nausea and flushing in some patients and the potential to develop neutralizing antibodies.
Analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and antineuropathic drugs may control pain that is unresponsive to bisphosphonates.
It should be noted that pain in a Paget’s disease patient may be the result of increased metabolic activity, joint involvement leading to osteoarthritis, or an unrelated musculoskeletal problem.
Long-term disodium etidronate in the treatment of Paget’s disease has been associated with the development of osteomalacia (
98).
More directed therapy entails addressing the underlying mutation. In this regard, some success has been seen with recombinant osteoprotegerin (the osteoclast “decoy” factor) in treating juvenile Paget’s disease (
98).
Reasonable indications for the application of antiresorptive treatment for Paget’s disease would include symptoms such as constant bone pain; headache with skull involvement; back pain; or other neurologic symptoms related to pagetic spine involvement, pagetic arthritis, and fissure fractures. Prophylactic therapy to avoid progression to fracture, arthritis, or nerve compression in known active lesions would be prudent as would treatment of pagetic hypercalcemia due to immobilization and before elective surgery.
Skeletal remains have suggested that Paget’s disease originated in Britain around 1000 A.D., and its prevalence has been studied extensively. However, there is recent evidence that the disease is in decline at least in those patients with severe or polyostotic disease (
99,
100).