According to some authors
tenditinis and tenovaginitis of a long head of the biceps are rare, this claim
cannot be accepted.
Tenovaginitis of the long head
of the biceps can occur simultaneously
with synovitis of the glenohumeral joint, but most frequently it occurs
lonely. Tenovaginitis of the long head of the biceps seems to be felt worse than
synovitis of the shoulder joint itself, and affected patients see a doctor
immediately. Chronic synovitis of the shoulder joint at rheumatoid arthritis can
be felt as a not so much annoying pain inside the shoulder joint rather with a
big restriction of motility. At tenovaginitis of the long head of the biceps the
patients are not satisfied with their state, and immediately after their coming
to the surgery, they speak about terrible pains and a big restriction of
motility of the shoulder. Also minimal tenosynovitis of the sheath influences
movements of the glenohumeral articulation. ”A classical” rheumatoid
affection, at which the bicipital tenovaginitis occurs, is rheumatoid arthritis
or psoriatic arthropathy. Most frequently we meet patients by whom the
determination of diagnosis is more difficult because of long time delays between
attacks of the primary affection. So we meet patients with alternate
or reversible tenovaginitides of
the long head of the biceps, at which isolated synovitis of a knee or an
astragalus during several years, swellings of a tarsus, pains of elbows or
heels. Most of these patients have attacks of several months lasting pains not
only in the lumbar spine but also in the cervical spine, and this fact brings
the diagnosis of vertebrogenic problems. By all these patients we intently
took the picture of SI articulation, a finding was normal, and most
patients were HLA B27 negative. Even so we think that it deals with a form of
undifferentiated seronegative sponarthritides of matutinal type. But in our opinion, present diagnostic
criteria are not able to interpret simply the active affection.