[Reiter's syndrome: the clinico-histomorphological correlations]

A total of 11 patients with Reiter's syndrome underwent puncture biopsy of the synovial membrane of the knee joint. At the early stage of the disease the patients showed hyperemia, edema, infiltration with neutrophilic leukocytes, lymphocytes and plasmacytes. At the later stage diffuse and focal infiltrates of lymphocytes and plasmacytes and a rise of the fibrocyte count were predominant. A correlation was established between the degree of edema and pain and histomorphologically ascertained hyperemia and edema of the synovial membrane. As the disease progresses, clinically dominant is the induration of the articular bursa, which correlates with the grade of infiltrative and fibrous alterations established on histomorphology.