This book covers all aspects of the specialized field of gerontorheumatology, providing a complete overview of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases and related conditions in the elderly. The emphasis is particularly on pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment, including the latest advances in biological and pharmacological therapy and potential treatment side effects. The book will provide the reader with a keen awareness of the characteristic features, distinctive etiologies, and different courses of the various disorders of the musculoskeletal system in the geriatric population. Diagnostic and treatment considerations of special relevance in daily practice are highlighted, and the importance of comorbidities and their rheumatic consequences is also emphasized. The book will be of value for gerontologists, rheumatologists, internists, and rehabilitation physicians and will offer excellent guidance for general practitioners, who are typically the first to deal with disorders of the musculoskeletal system in elderly patients.

Pathogenesis, clinical symptoms and therapy of rheumatoid arthritis.- Osteoporosis in rheumatoid arthritis in elderly patients.- Biological therapy of rheumatoid arthritis.- Systemic lupus erythematosus.- Sjögren’s syndrome.- Systemic scleroderma.- Vasculitis.- Polymyalgia rheumatic and giant cell arteritis.- Aortal aneurysm as a lethal complication of giant cell arteritis.- Relapsing polychondritis.- RS3PE – a disease or a syndrome?.- Clinical and laboratory features of paraneoplastic rheumatic syndromes.- Osteoarthritis.- Arthropathy in hemochromatosis.- Diabetic Charcot's neurogenic osteoarthropathy.- Changes of musculoskeletal system in metabolic syndrome.- Clinical symptoms in gouty arthritis.- X-ray and ultrasound picture of chondrocalcinosis.- Alkaptonuria and ochronosis.- Metabolic osteopathy in celiac disease manifested in elderly patients.- Celiac disease in elderly patients.- Bone and joint involvement in celiac disease.- Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.- Senile osteoporosis.- Nutrition and osteoporosis.- Neck and shoulder pain.- Vertebrogenic diseases.- Pain.- Pharmacotherapy of rheumatic diseases.- Drug-induced rheumatic syndromes.- Rehabilitation in rheumatic diseases.- Surgical treatment of the consequences of rheumatic diseases.- Paget’s disease of bone.- Involutional osteoporosis: sarcopenia, frailty syndrome and falls.- Systemic enzyme therapy in complex treatment of degenerative rheumatic diseases in the elderly patients.