Can anyone translate this into English for me please?!

[GeorgetteHeyer]

Long story short - have painful knees, went to the consultant, have been referred for an ultrasound scan and will also have them drained and injected (sorry if TMI).

Got cc'd in on a letter this morning from the consultant to my doctor, which gives my medical history, my symptoms, what we discussed, that they don't think it's gout, etc etc.

I don't understand two phrases and don't want to scare the life out of myself by googling, hope you can help me...

'There is no definite synovitis or effusions of the knees'

and

'The problesm may relate to a soft tissue aetiology and possibly tendinopathy with a seronegative type picture'

Any ideas?

synovitus - so that's the membrane (I think)

effusions - & this is the fluid

So these bits are OK (I think)

But the other one is ???

Sorry

So basically...they don't know?!

Thanks both - good to know it's not rheumatoid arthritis

seronegative type picture is a very vague way of suggesting it could be some sort of autoimmune process (of which rheumatoid arthritis is just one) affecting your tendons, since there's no inflammation of the covering of the joint (synovitis) or extra joint fluid (effusion)- certain blood tests are positive in some sorts, but negative in others..

very unusual though.

obviosly i don't know all your history, and don't know much about tendonopathies, but it sounds a bit like 'it's nothing easy to diagnose, so next step is to rule out some unusual stuff' to me

good luck!

Thanks LSO - would be typical if it was something very unusual, very me