Reiter's Disease

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Psoriasis

“…(2) The severity ofboth diseases varies synchronously.-This has frequently been noted (Brunsting, 1943;Epstein, 1939;Garrod and Evans, 1924;Gibson, 1948;Graham, 1953;Hench, 1927Hench, , 1935Hunt, 1932;Jeghers and Robinson, 1937;Nordin, 1934;Nunemaker and Hartman, 1950;O'Leary, 1943;Vilanova and Pifiol, 1951), and it is considered by many to be essential to the diagnosis of "psoriatic arthritis". It has also been found that whereas treatment of the arthritis had no effect on either condition, treatment of the psoriasis relieved both (Franks and Wallace, 1942;Hench, 1935;Jungmann and Stem, 1944).…”

“…The reports available in English are collected in Table III, but unlike those already quoted, are extremely variable. Psoriasis is a definitive disease, whereas "arthritis" is a generic term, and its incidence in psoriatics depends on its definition; in Table III this varies from asking patients whether they had ever suffered from "arthritis" and recording the answers without clinical confirmation (Lane and Crawford, 1937), to a strict definition of "psoriatic arthritis" (Epstein, 1939). No conclusion about the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis amongst psoriatics can therefore be drawn from these reports.…”

“…(4) Bone destruction.-Arthritis mutilans is usually associated with psoriasis, but does occur without (Graham, 1953;Jonsson, 1949;Mather, 1954), but lesser degrees of destruction of the bones of the hands and feet have been more specifically associated with psoriasis (Brunsting, 1943;Fawcitt, 1950;Gibson, 1948;Sherman, 1952;Sterne and Schneider, 1953). The destruction affected mainly the distal ends of the bones, and in some cases there was associated widening of the articular surface of the proximal end of the adjoining bone, often with indentation (Fawcitt, 1950;Gibson, 1948).…”

“…The destruction affected mainly the distal ends of the bones, and in some cases there was associated widening of the articular surface of the proximal end of the adjoining bone, often with indentation (Fawcitt, 1950;Gibson, 1948). This limited destruction is not recorded in the absence of psoriasis, though presumably it must be a stage in the development of arthritis mutilans, with or without skin involvement.…”

Reiter's Syndrome in Childhood

“…The earlier papers dealing with this syndrome considered that it was essentially associated with gonorrhoea; Lees and Percival (1931) give a full report of the condition and consider the possibility of hypersensitivity to gonococcal toxin. Recently the similarity to Reiter's syndrome has been pointed out by Epstein (1947), and the absence of proof of gonococcal infection in many cases suggested the same aetiology for the two syndromes. Peters (1949) suggests that keratosis blenorrhagica is essentially the same condition as Reiter's syndrome, although the rarity of cases with skin lesions in epidemics of Reiter's syndrome is notable.…”