Joints and Connective Tissues - General Practice: The Integrative Approach Series. In order to diagnose and manage the patient presenting with musculoskeletal symptoms, it is important to distinguish whether the pathology is arising primarily in the so-called hard tissues (such as bone) or the soft tissues (such as cartilage, disc, synovium, capsule, muscle, tendon, tendon sheath). It is also important to distinguish between the two most common causes of musculoskeletal symptoms, namely inflammatory and degenerative.