Hypermobility Syndrome - Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Common symptoms of Hypermobility syndrome include:

• Extreme flexibility of the joints
• A dull but intense pain in regions of the knee and ankle joints
• Pain in the soles of the feet. This can be managed by footwear specially designed with insoles.
• Pain in the back, knees, fingers, elbows and hips.
• Clicking noise in the joints
• Frequent sprain, dislocations, bursitis, tendonitis
• Early onset of osteoarthritis
• Frequent prolapsed disc
• Hypermobilty is also observed in some pregnant women. The related pain in the pelvic girdle, in these women can be excruciating.
• Scoliosis or curved spine can occur

Hypermobility may be a symptom of other conditions such as:

• Ehler -Danlos syndrome
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Lupus
• Osteogenesis imperfeta
• Marfan syndrome
• Down syndrome
• Polio
• Myotonia congenital
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Nerve compression disorders like carpel tunnel syndrome
• Panic disorder

Diagnosis

Joint hypermobility syndrome shares symptoms with other disorders such as Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and osteogenesis imperfecta and, therefore, there is a need to distinguish between them.

The Modified Beighton score is used to assess and the 1998 Brighton criteria is used to diagnose Benign Joint Hypermobility Syndrome.