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'A differential diagnosis revealed that the rash on the bottom of this individual’s feet, known as keratoderma blennorrhagica, was due to Reiter's syndrome, not a syphilitic infection as was initially suspected' - CDC/ Dr. M. F. Rein

Reactive Arthritis (Reiter's syndrome) is the combination of three seemingly unlinked symptoms—an inflammatory arthritis of large joints, inflammation of the eyes (conjunctivitis and uveitis) and urethritis. It is named after Hans Reiter, a German military physician, who in 1916 described the disease in a World War I soldier who had recovered from a bout of diarrhea. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... reactive arthritis ... Image File history File links Feet-Reiters_syndrome. ... Image File history File links Feet-Reiters_syndrome. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom can be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see e. ... Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack the joints. ... Uveitis specifically refers to inflammation of the middle layer of the eye, termed the uvea but in common usage may refer to any inflammatory process involving the interior of the eye. ... Urethritis is an inflammation of the urethra. ... // Early Life Hans Conrad Julius Reiter was born on February 26, 1881 in Reudnitz near Hessen in Germany. ... A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and... Diarrhea (AmE) or diarrhoea (CwE) is a condition in which the sufferer has frequent and watery or loose bowel movements (from the ancient Greek word διαρροή = leakage; lit. ...

Reiter's is a seronegative, HLA-B27-linked spondyloarthropathy (autoimmune damage to the cartilages of joints) often precipitated by genitourinary or gastrointestinal infections. It is more common in men than in women and more common in white men than in black men. People with HIV have an increased risk of developing Reiter's as well. Human Leukocyte Antigen B*27 (subtypes B*2701-2724) is a class I surface antigen encoded by the B locus in the MHC on chromosome 6. ... Spondyloarthropathies are a group of related inflammatory joint disease associated with the MHC class I molecule HLA-B27. ... Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. ... This article is about a joint in zootomical anatomy. ... An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. ... The human immunodeficiency virus, commonly called HIV, is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. ...

It is set off by a preceding infection, the most common of which would be a genital infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. Other bacteria known to cause Reiter's are gonococcus, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, and Campylobacter. A bout of food poisoning or a gastrointestinal infection may also set off Reiter's (those last four bacteria mentioned are enteric bacteria). Reactive Arthritis usually manifests about 1-3 weeks after a known infection. An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. ... Binomial name Chlamydia trachomatis Busacca, 1935 Chlamydia trachomatis is a species of the chlamydiae, a group of obligately intracellular bacteria. ... Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a species of Gram-negative (see also Gram Stain) bacteria responsible for the disease gonorrhoea. ... Binomial name Ureaplasma urealyticum Ureaplasma urealyticum is a bacterium belonging to the family Mycoplasmataceae. ... Species Salmonella bongori Salmonella choleraesuis Salmonella enterica Salmonella enteritidis Salmonella nyanza Salmonella paratyphi Salmonella typhi Salmonella typhimurium Salmonella virginia Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative enterobacteria that causes typhoid fever, paratyphoid and foodborne illness. ... Species Shigella boydii Shigella dysenteriae Shigella flexneri Shigella sonnei Shigella are Gram-negative, nonmotile, nonsporeforming rod-shaped bacteria. ... Species Y. pestis Y. enterocolitica etc. ... Species see text Campylobacter is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. ... Foodborne illness or food poisoning is caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. ... For the Physics term GUT, please refer to Grand unification theory The gastrointestinal or digestive tract, also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal or the gut, is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, digests it to extract energy and nutrients, and...

Name

Hans Reiter during World War Two committed inhumane experimentation on Jews and other prisoners in the nazi concentration camps, and there is some debate amongst those inflicted with the syndrome on whether they want the syndrome to be named after the physician. Reiter was also a member of the Nazi SS. Reiter supported involuntary sterilization and euthanasia, and in later interrogations he admitted to “recording the numerical count” of those victims. Dr. Reiter designed a study to inject experimental typhus vaccine into concentration camp prisoners at Buchenwald. Several hundred people died as a result of this experiment. // Early Life Hans Conrad Julius Reiter was born on February 26, 1881 in Reudnitz near Hessen in Germany. ... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... Concentration camp in Nazi Germany. ...

Due to strong opposition to Reiter's actions as a Nazi, in 1977 a group of doctors began a campaign to encourage the use of the name reactive arthritis rather than the Reiter eponym. A 2005 analysis in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that the campaign has been effective. In a sample from medical journals, use of the eponym dropped from 57% in 1998 to 34% in 2003. The report concluded that the term will eventually be eliminated as a modern name for the disease.

Other names for the disease include arthritis urethritica, venereal arthritis, and polyarteritis enterica.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms generally appear within 1-3 weeks but can range from 4-35 days from onset of inciting episode of disease.

The classical presentation is that the first symptom experienced is a urinary symptom such as burning pain on urination (dysuria) or an increased need to urinate (polyuria or frequency). Other urogenital problems may arise such as prostatitis in men, and cervicitis, salpingitis and/or vulvovaginitis in women. Dysuria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Polyuria is the passage of a large volume of urine in a given period, a characteristic of diabetes. ... Sine waves of various frequencies; the lower waves have higher frequencies than those above. ... Prostatitis is any form of inflammation of the prostate gland. ... Inflammation of the tissues of the cervix is known as cervicitis. ... Female internal reproductive anatomy The Fallopian tubes, also known as oviducts and uterine tubes, are two very fine tubes leading from the ovaries of female mammals into the uterus. ...

The arthritis that follows usually affects the large joints such as the knees causing pain and swelling with relative sparing of small joints such as the wrist and hand. Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation) is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. ... An x-ray of a human knee In human anatomy, the knee is the leg joint connecting the femur and the tibia. ... According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), one should distinguish between pain and nociception. ... Edema (BE: oedema, formerly known as dropsy) is swelling of any organ or tissue due to accumulation of excess fluid. ...

Eye involvement occurs in about 50% of men with urogenital Reactive Arthritis and about 75% of men with enteric Reactive Arthritis. Conjunctivitis and uveitis can cause redness of the eyes, eye pain and irritation, and blurred vision. Eye involvement typically occurs early in the course of Reactive Arthritis, and symptoms may come and go. Uveitis specifically refers to inflammation of the middle layer of the eye, termed the uvea but in common usage may refer to any inflammatory process involving the interior of the eye. ...

Roughly 20 to 40 percent of men with Reactive Arthritis develop penile lesions called balanitis circinata on the end of the penis. A small percentage of men and women develop small hard nodules called keratoderma blennorrhagica on the soles of the feet, and less often on the palms of the hands or elsewhere. In addition, some people with Reactive Arthritis develop mouth ulcers that come and go. In some cases, these ulcers are painless and go unnoticed. A nodule describes an aggregation of similar cells or particles in a number of scientific fields: In medicine it refers to a small aggregation of cells. ... Keratoderma blennorrhagica are skin lesions commonly found on the palms and soles but which may spread to the scrotum scalp and trunk also. ...

About 10 percent of people with Reactive Arthritis, especially those with prolonged disease, will develop cardiac manifestations including aortic regurgitation and pericarditis. Aortic insufficiency (AI), also known as aortic regurgitation (AR), is the leaking of the aortic valve of the heart that causes blood to flow in the reverse direction during ventricular diastole, from the aorta into the left ventricle. ... Pericarditis is inflammation of the pericardium. ...

Diagnosis

There are countless clinical symptoms, but the clinical picture is dominated by polyarthritis. There is pain, swelling, redness, and heat in the joints. Polyarthritis is any type of arthritis which involves more than one joint. ... According to the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), one should distinguish between pain and nociception. ... This article is about a joint in zootomical anatomy. ...

Swabs of the urethra, cervix and throat may be done looking for the causative organisms. Cultures may be done on urine and stool samples. An aspiration of synovial fluid from an affected knee may be done to look at the fluid under the microscope and for culture. Female anatomy In anatomy, the urethra is a tube which connects the urinary bladder to the outside of the body. ... Female internal reproductive anatomy Close up view of the ectocervix and external os Schematic frontal view of female anatomy The cervix (from Latin neck) is actually the lower, narrow portion of the uterus where it joins with the top end of the vagina. ... Anatomy In anatomy, the throat is the part of the neck anterior to the vertebral column. ... Urine is liquid waste excreted by the kidneys and eventually expelled from the body in a process known as urination. ... A stool can refer to: A type of chair feces This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Synovial fluid is a thick, stringy fluid found in the cavities of synovial joints. ...

Treatment

The goal of treatment is firstly to identify and eradicate the underlying infectious source with the appropriate antibiotics. Otherwise, treatment is symptomatic for each problem. Steroids and analgesics may be given for severe joint inflammation. Immunosuppressants may be needed for patients with severe Reiter's which do not respond to any other treatment. An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ... A steroid is a lipid characterized by a carbon skeleton with four fused rings. ... For other uses of painkiller, see painkiller (disambiguation) An analgesic (colloquially known as painkiller) is any member of the diverse group of drugs used to relieve pain. ...

Prognosis

Reactive Arthritis may be self limiting, frequently recurring or develop continually. Most patients have severe symptoms lasting weeks to six months. Approximately 15-50 percent of cases have recurrent bouts of arthritis. Chronic arthritis or sacroiliitis occurs in 15-30 percent of cases. Repeated attacks over many years is common, and more than 40 percent of the patients end up with chronic and disabling arthritis, heart disease or impaired vision. However, most people with Reactive Arthritis can expect to live normal life spans and maintain a near-normal lifestyle with modest adaptations to protect the involved joints. Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation) is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. ... There are different forms of heart disease: Coronary heart disease Ischaemic heart disease Cardiovascular disease The study of the heart (and diseases of the heart) is Cardiology This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... Life expectancy is the most likely number of years remaining for a living being (or the average for a class of living beings) of a given age to live. ...

External links

• Merck Manual on Reiter's Syndrome
• The physician Hans Reiter as prisoner of war in Nuremberg
• No place for Nazis in medicine - New Scientist article about the decline of the Reiter eponym
• Picture - Reiter's conjunctivitis (Chlamydia)
• Picture - Reiter's psoriasiform skin changes (Chlamydia)
• Picture - Reiter's arm lesions (Chlamydia)
• Picture - Reiter's hand lesions (Chlamydia)
• ArthritisMD (Physician submitted articles) - research based arthritis articles by physicians