[The comparative clinico-laboratory characteristics of Lyme arthritis and reactive arthritis]

The paper presents comparative clinical and laboratory characteristics of 17 cases of Lyme-arthritis (LA) and 28 cases of reactive arthritis (RA). LA and RA patients differed by age and sex. LA arose after the tick bite followed by erythema migrans or infection symptoms. In RA patients the above symptoms were absent. In LA patients arthritis was associated with typical symptoms of neuroborreliosis. The articular syndrome manifested similarly in LA and RA: arthritis was preceded by arthralgias, low limb joints and periarticular tissues were involved most frequently. The differences were: monoarthritis, elbow and shoulder joints, muscles lesions occurred more frequently in LA; polyarthritis, arthritis of hand and foot joints, talalgia were more common in RA. RA ran more actively, joint syndrome more frequently gave rise to fever. Prevalence of chlamydial infection in LA was close to that in RA. LA may run as RA, is frequently combined with Chlamydia trachomatis infection.