Reactive arthritis

Abstract

The term ‘reactive arthritis’ is sometimes used rather loosely to cover any form of arthritis that follows infection, and then includes post-viral arthritides, rheumatic fever, Lyme disease, and other forms of arthritis that do not generally share clinical features. Reactive arthritis a subset of post-infectious arthritis, and causative organisms are usually localized to the gastrointestinal or genitourinary tracts. Following infection, organisms or their components find their way to joints, where they provoke inflammatory immune responses. Whether the responses cross-react with self antigens is unclear; arthritis may be maintained by persistent infection. The disease commonly has specific extra-articular features not seen in other forms of post-infectious arthritis, and is genetically and pathologically a form of spondyloarthritis.