BACKGROUND Lyme arthritis can be readily treated with use of oral antibiotics without any need for surgery. In Lyme-endemic areas, differentiating between Lyme arthritis and septic arthritis can be difficult. Laboratory testing for Lyme disease often results in a delay in diagnosis because many labs batch-test Lyme specimens only two times per week due to lack of equipment or increased expense....

‘Sickle hepatopathy’ is a condition which seen in only 10% cases of sickle cell disease (SCD). Sickle hepatopathy could be due to acute crisis, sequestration, cholangiopathy, severe intrahepatic cholestasis or as result chronic blood transfusion related infection and hemosiderosis. Differentiating the cause for SCD challenging. Hepatopathy manifestation can range from mild liver function test a...

OBJECTIVES To analyse the characteristic features of patients with coexistence of gouty arthritis and pyarthrosis at our university hospital in southern Taiwan, an area with high prevalence of hyperuricemia and gout. METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed for patients who had concomitant gouty and septic arthritis from July 1998 to June 2008. Clinical and laboratory data of these ...

C ompared with monoarticular arthritis, polyarticular arthritis may yield an initially narrower differential diagnosis that focuses on systemic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Approximately 15% to 30% of septic arthritis is polyarticular, of which about 45% is associated with underlying RA.1,2 Regardless of the number of joints involved, septic (infectious) arthritis...