TX-ARTHROPATHY

Beside the known complications like osteoporosis, osteonecrosis, gout and steroid-pseudorheumatism a hitherto not described oligoarthropathy could be observed in a significant number of patients after bone-marr ow (BMTX) resp. after heart-transplantation (HTX); (1 8/33 in BMTX res p. 66/120 in HTX). In most cases this short lasting, self-limiting man ifestation, that we called >>TX-arthropathy<< started three months aft er TX. As the TX-arthropathy seemed to be related to graft-versus-host reaction (= T-cell reaction) following BMTX resp. to allograft reject ion (= immune complex-vasculitis) following HTX it was not only a prog nostic marker for chronic gvh-reaction resp. organ rejection but might also be an interesting >>iatrogenic model<< for inflammatory rheumati c diseases.