Etiology of acute arthritis in patients referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol, 1995-99

Abstract

Objective: Arthritis is a common sign, which is almost one of the first manifestations of musculoskeletal diseases. With regard to a relationship between the prevalence of some rheumatic diseases with genetic and environmental factors, the causes of arthritis may be different among the racial and ethnic groups in any geographic area. The present study was conducted to determine the etiology of acute arthritis in Babol. Methods: Arthritis was confirmed clinically and etiological diagnosis was made according to the usual criteria for rheumatic disease. This study was done on patients aged over 16 and their disease duration was less than four weeks. Findings: From 133 patients under the study, 26% were referred with acute monoarthritis (AM), 56% with acute oligoarthritis (AO) and 18% with acute polyarthritis (AP). The most common cause of AM was gout, the most common causes of oligoarthritis were reactive arthritis (ReA) and rheumatic fever (RF). ReA, RF, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) were the common causes of AP. Conclusion: These findings show that gout, ReA, RA, RF and SLE are the common causes of acute arthritis in old, middle and young age in Babol.

Keywords

• arthritis
• acute monoarthritis
• acute oligoarthritis
• acute polyarthritis
• etiology