Diagnosis and Prognosis of Reiter’s Syndrome
October 30, 2008
Reiter’s Syndrome refers to a group disorders which include conjuntivitis, painful joints, and urinary tract infection. Other disorders included are ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, and inflammatory bowel syndrome arthritis. It is also known as reactive arthritis. This is because arthritis results from the infection at another part of the body. Another name for Reiter’s syndrome is seronegative spondyloarthropathy. This is because it causes inflammations at the joints.
Early diagnosis necessary
It is good for the Reiter’s syndrome to be diagnosed early in order to offset the development of painful joints. Therefore if you have arthritis, you must know which type you have and more so what is causing it. How is diagnosis done?
Physical examination
Diagnosis is done mainly by physical examination. This may take a long time because it depends o the physical signs that the disease shows. It is these physical signs that will form the basis of the conclusion. The patient might not show all the symptoms, so the more the symptoms recognized, the more accurate the diagnosis will be. Some of these symptoms are skin lesions in addition to joint pains.
Other tests
Doctors may then call for imaging tests like the X-ray of the lower spine or the pelvis during the diagnostic process. Another thing is to remove some fluid from the painful joint for examination. The examination involves finding out whether there is a higher number of white blood cells or not. The patient’s history of infections is also examined after the symptoms are identified. It is also important to find out what exactly causes the inflammation of the joints. This is because there could be other causes such as gout and other infections.
Prognosis
Although Reiter’s syndrome varies in from one patient to another, it can be cured with proper therapy, if it is detected early enough. In severe cases it may result in poor vision, joint damage and disability. There could be milder cases where the disease is only a temporary problem. Reiter’s syndrome is very risky in men as compared to women. It is equally risky if the blood test shows a general inflammation, and there is poor response to initial treatment.



























