A search for Chlamydia trachomatis in synovial fluids from patients with reactive arthritis using the polymerase...

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique to detect Chlamydia trachomatis DNA was used to examine synovial specimens from patients with reactive arthritis. We were able to detect C. trachomatis DNA in synovial specimens which had been seeded with intact elementary bodies or chlamydial DNA. However, we were unable to detect chlamydial DNA in unseeded synovial specimens from 10 patients with sexually acquired reactive arthritis, 17 patients with reactive arthritis and 11 control patients with other arthropathies. In addition, using a monoclonal antibody technique, we were unable to detect chlamydial antigen in any of the synovial cell deposits examined. We conclude that C. trachomatis DNA was not present in the joints of these patients at the time of synovial fluid collection, and suggest that either DNA degradation occurred rapidly after viable chlamydiae had entered the joint or that chlamydial DNA was not present at any stage of the reactive response.