Reactive Arthritis Musculoskeletal eMedicine Radiology

Reiter syndrome was originally defined as a triad of arthritis, conjunctivitis, and urethritis. Hans Reiter first reported this triad of symptoms in 1916, and Bauer and Engelman formally described it as a syndrome in 1942.

A term frequently associated with Reiter syndrome is reactive arthritis. Ahvonen and coworkers introduced this term in 1969. Reactive arthritis is used to describe an acute arthritis complicating an infection elsewhere in the body in which the infecting organism cannot be cultured from the joint fluid or synovium.

Approximately 80% of patients are positive for the histocompatability antigen called human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27; therefore, reactive arthritis is strongly associated with HLA-B27. Reiter syndrome is now thought to be only 1 clinical manifestation of reactive arthritis. Because of its association with HLA-B27 and its clinical overlap with ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis and Reiter syndrome are classified as types of seronegative (for rheumatoid factor) spondyloarthropathy.<br>

Anil Kumar Aribandi, MD, MRCP & Oludare Adetokunbo Demuren, MD, FRCR 2007