Skin in rheumatoid arthritis and seronegative arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a multisystem inflammatory disorder affecting the joints, soft tissue, as well as extraarticular sites like the skin. Cutaneous manifestations occur in up to 40% cases and vary from specific to nonspecific lesions. Specific changes consist of rheumatoid nodules, neutrophilic dermatoses such as palisaded neutrophilic granulomatous dermatoses, rheumatoid neutrophilic dermatoses, pyoderma gangrenosum, and Sweet's syndrome; nonspecific changes include skin atrophy, wrinkling, palmar erythema, and Raynaud's phenomenon. Seronegative arthritis is a group of chronic inflammatory arthritis, which is typically negative for rheumatoid factor, and is often associated with HLA-B27. There is asymmetric peripheral polyarthritis with sacroiliitis and is often associated with cutaneous, ocular, genitourinary, and gastrointestinal abnormalities. Psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease-associated arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis are the major conditions seen in this group.

Keywords

• neutrophilic dermatoses
• rheumatoid arthritis
• seronegative arthritis