Enthesitis

Overview
Enthesitis is an inflammation of the entheses, the location where a bone has an insertion to a tendon or a ligament. It is also called enthesopathy, or any pathologic condition involving the entheses. The entheses are any point of attachment of skeletal muscles to bone, where recurring stress or inflammatory autoimmune disease can cause inflammation or occasionally fibrosis and calcification. One of the primary entheses involved in inflammatory autoimmune disease is at the heel. Heel swelling and inflammation are therefore used to help diagnose certain inflammatory autoimmune diseases, including ankylosing spondylitis.