The authors consider the problems posed by secondary and associated chondrocalcinosis (CCA) on the basis of a study carried out at many French Rheumatology centres (Centres de Rhumatologie Française) and in the light of data in the literature. CCA is associated with gout in 4 percent of cases, with hyperparathyroidism in 3.9 percent of cases, with haemochromatosis in 1.7 percent of cases and with hypothyroidism in 0.8 percent of cases. The existence of secondary CCA in gout, hyperparathyroidism, haemochromatosis, Wilson's disease, ochronosis, hypophosphatasia and perhaps hypothyroidism seems proven. These secondary cases of CCA represent 10.7 percent of the total 1226 : here CCA seems to form one element of a much broader syndrome, namely the metabolic arthropathies. The other associations, with the exception of those which are not considered in this paper (rheumatoid polyarthritis, diabetes mellitus, Paget's disease, osteochrondromatosis, acromegalia), are probably coincidental.