UNDIFFERENTIATED CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE WITH HYPERPLASIA OF YELLOW LIGAMENTS IN L4-L5 CAUSING SEGMENTAL SPINAL STENOSIS

M. Bonetti¹*, M. Frigerio¹, G. Sabetta², R. Degliuomini², F. Bonetti²

¹Neuroradiology Department, Clinical Institute City of Brescia, Brescia Italy;
²Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

*Correspondence to:

Matteo Bonetti, MD
Neuroradiology Department,
Clinical Institute, City of Brescia,
via Gualla 15,
25128 Brescia Italy
e-mail: dottorbonetti@gmail.com

Received:  23 July  2023 Accepted: 02 September 2023

2038-4106(2023) Copyright © by BIOLIFE This publication and/or article is for individual use only and may not be further reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. Unauthorized reproduction may result in financial and other penalties. Disclosure: all authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

ABSTRACT

Undifferentiated connective tissue disease (UCTD) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by clinical and serological manifestations not fulfilling the criteria for defined connective tissue diseases. Up to 90% of the cases are young women. Usually, UCTD has a mild clinical course with a wide variety of signs and symptoms because it can involve any connective tissue in the body. 40% of patients with UCTD develop the stage of a well-defined systemic autoimmune disease during five years of follow-up, while 60% remain in an undifferentiated stage. The most used drugs in treating UCTD are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, calcium channel blockers, and antimalarial drugs. We report a rare case of a woman with UCTD in corticosteroid treatment, suffering from low back pain refractory to therapy, evidence a computed tomography (CT) of abnormal bone hyperplasia of the yellow ligament conditioning spinal stenosis.

KEYWORDS: undifferentiated connective tissue disease, yellow ligaments, spinal stenosis, systemic autoimmune diseases