Clinical studies on gonococcal arthritis and reiter's syndrome and measurement of gonococcal and bedsonia antibodies

✍ Scribed by John T. Sharp; Martin D. Lidsky; William A. Riley

• Book ID: 102749830
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1968
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 622 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780110406

✦ Synopsis

Clinical and serologic studies on 94 patients suspected of having gonococcal arthritis or Reiter's syndrome are reported. Twenty-eight patients had arthritis due to a Neisserian organism.

Causative organisms were identified as gonococci in 19 instances. The species of the remaining 9 organisms was not N ASSOCIATION between arthritis and dis-A ease of the genitourinary tract was noted at least as early as the 16th Century and has been commented upon regularly since then.1 At present, we recognize gonococcal arthritis and Reiter's syndrome as common forms of arthritis occurring with genitourinary tract disease. However, many cases appear to be unrelated to, or to show only a tenuous relationship to these conditions, suggesting that our available diagnostic procedures are not reliable or that other as yet unknown causes account for many of these patients' illnesses.

In order to gain a broad perspective of the problem, we have reviewed all patients seen between 1962 and 1967 with an acute arthritis and evidence of genitourinary tract disease, including those with Reiter's syndrome and proven or suspected gonococcal arthritis. Certain clinical, bacterio-identified. Seven patients exhibited the complete Reiter's syndrome. Neither clinical features nor measurement of gonococcal or Bedsonia antibodies were sufficient to establish a diagnosis in those cases that had sterile blood and synovial fluid cultures and lacked the Reiter's triad.

logic and serologic studies on this group of patients are presented here.