Chlamydia trachomatis-induced reactive arthritis in India: frequency and clinical presentation

Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis)-induced reactive arthritis (ReA)/undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy (uSpA) are unrecognised/underestimated entities, and clinicians often fail to recognise them. In India, our group was the first to report intra-articular C. trachomatis infection in patients with ReA/uSpA having genitourinary symptoms.1 Males were predominant (78%) and majority of patients presented with an oligoarthritic profile (80%), enthesitis (11%) and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B27 (40%); however, none reported ocular infection. Despite this observation, it is also very likely that C. trachomatis-induced ReA/uSpA is underdiagnosed in women. Intra-articular C. trachomatis major outer membrane protein (MOMP)/plasmid was evident in synovial fluid (SF) of patients with ReA/uSpA (n=45; 24.4%) by seminested (sn)/nested (n) PCR as reported earlier (p<0.05),1 while cytological diagnosis in SF by direct fluorescence assay (DFA) showed the presence of C. trachomatis elementary bodies (31.1%).2 Anti-C. trachomatis IgA antibodies were also significantly higher in SF and serum...
Source: Sexually Transmitted Infections - Category: Sexual Medicine Authors: Tags: Miscellaneous Source Type: research