The diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever is a clinical challenge and depends on the possibility of the disease being borne in mind. Although the complete eradication of rheumatic fever from the Western world has not been achieved, the disease is often forgotten in the differential diagnosis of a patient with fever and polyarthralgia or arthritis. Rheumatic fever remains an important acquired card...

Here we describe four isolations of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae associated with polyarthralgia and renal failure, septic arthritis, classic erysipeloid, and peritonitis. Although the biochemical identification was straightforward in each case, recognition presented a challenge to the clinical microbiologist, since in three cases E. rhusiopathiae was not initially considered due to unusual clin...

BACKGROUND Chikungunya virus is a mosquito-borne alphavirus which causes an acute febrile illness associated with polyarthralgia. Beginning in August 2013, clinicians from the Yap State Department of Health in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) identified an unusual cluster of illness which was subsequently confirmed to be chikungunya virus disease. Chikungunya virus disease previously ha...

BACKGROUND One of the rare presentations of active pulmonary or even extrapulmonary tuberculosis is polyarthropathy which is the involvement of multiple large and small joints in the body; a reactive constellation known as Poncet's disease. This may sometimes be the sole manifestation of the disease before more obvious features develop. The pain experienced during polyarthritis can be crippling...

BACKGROUND Mayaro virus is endemic in South America and sporadic outbreaks have been described. It causes a dengue-like febrile illness accompanied by severe and long-lasting polyarthralgias. Outside endemic regions, however, the disease is not well known and can be misdiagnosed as dengue. International travellers are at risk to acquire Mayaro virus and due to increased worldwide travel infecti...

Gonococcus typically affects the mucosal surfaces but in rare cases can spread to bloodstream causing disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI). The usual presentation of DGI is rash, polyarthralgia, and tenosynovitis. We present the case of a 23-year-old female who presented to our hospital with pustular rash and tenosynovitis of hand and was sent home on Augmentin. Her symptoms worsened despite...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether antikeratin antibodies (AKA) could be useful in the differential diagnosis of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) associated polyarthritis, who are seropositive for rheumatoid factor (RF). METHODS AKA were assayed in 3 different groups of patients; all were RF seropositive: Group 1: 25 patients with HCV ass...

Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is a clinical reaction pattern that is principally drug induced and this is characterized by acute, nonfollicular sterile pustules on a background of edematous erythema. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been widely used to treat rheumatic and dermatologic diseases and HCQ has been reported to be an uncommon cause of AGEP. A 38-year-old woman with a ...

We report here a case of adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), who finally responded to a combination of cyclophosphamide (CPA) and gold sodium thiomalate (GST) after two years of active disease. A 23-year-old man having continuous high fever with skin rash, polyarthralgia and increased serum ferritin, was diagnosed as AOSD, and oral corticosteroid was initially effective. His symptoms recurred o...