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Poncets disease (reactive arthritis associated with tuberculosis): retrospective case series and review of literature
Clinical Rheumatology, 08/09/2012
Abdulaziz S et al. – Poncet’s disease may manifest in a variable pattern during the course of active tuberculous infection. Physicians should be aware of this rare complication associated with a common disease to prevent delay in diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment.
Methods- The authors studied seven patients who presented with arthritis within the first 3 years from diagnosis of active tuberculosis in two centers in the Makkah region: King Faisal Specialist Hospital and King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah from January 2005 to December 2011.
- They conducted a literature review on PD in multiple biomedical/pharmaceutical databases up to December 2011.
- They detected a new pattern of reactive arthritis associated with tuberculosis (TB).
- They identified this as PD or tuberculous rheumatism, which is a sterile reactive arthritis that can emerge during any stage of acute TB infection.
- Seven cases of Poncet’s disease were identified in the authors’ study.
- The most common presentation was extrapulmonary with involvement of multiple sites.
- Six out of seven patients developed arthritis after initiation of anti-TB drugs; one patient developed polyarthritis after completion of anti-TB medication.
- Asymmetrical polyarthritis was the most common presentation and the resolution of the arthritis was with symptomatic treatment and continuation of anti-TB drugs except in one case.
