Highlights & Basics
- Reactive arthritis (ReA) is an inflammatory arthritis that occurs after exposure to certain gastrointestinal and genitourinary infections. Patients with ReA may give a history of an antecedent infection 1 to 4 weeks before onset.
- Presenting features include fever, peripheral and axial arthritis, enthesitis (inflammation where tendons insert into bone), dactylitis (swelling of an entire finger or toe), conjunctivitis and iritis, and skin lesions including circinate balanitis and keratoderma blennorrhagicum.
- The peripheral arthritis in ReA is usually an asymmetric oligoarticular arthritis affecting the large joints of the lower limb, although monoarticular and polyarticular arthritis can also occur.
- There is no specific test for diagnosing ReA. Rather, a group of tests is used to confirm the suspicion in someone who has clinical symptoms suggestive of an inflammatory arthritis in the postvenereal or postdysentery period.
- Treatment is aimed at symptomatic relief and preventing or halting further joint damage. Typical agents include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
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Dougados M, van der Linden S, Juhlin R, et al. The European Spondylarthropathy Study Group preliminary criteria for the classification of spondylarthropathy. Arthritis Rheum. 1991;34:1218-1227.[Abstract]
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Carter JD, Espinoza LR, Inman RD, et al. Combination antibiotics as a treatment for chronic Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2010;62:1298-1307.[Abstract]
Colmegna I, Espinoza LR. Recent advances in reactive arthritis. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2005;7:201-207.[Abstract]
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