Clinical Presentation of Palindromic Rheumatism

Byun, Jung Won

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Palindromic rheumatism refers to the intermittent, relatively brief episodes of arthritis and/or inflammation of the soft tissue around the joint. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the clinical features, laboratory findings and prognosis of patients with palindromic rheumatism.
METHODS
Study group was forty-nine consecutive patients that enrolled as palindromic rheumatism at Gwangmyung Sungae General Hospital between January 1996 and December 2000 by retrospective chart review. Follow up durations of all cases were more than 2 years and mean follow up duration was 59+/-21.8 months.
RESULTS
There were 14 males and 35 females and sex ratio was 1:2.5. The mean age was 43.9+/-5.8 years. The attacks usually lasted less than 2 days and the most common attack pattern was monoarticular. In all cases, the most common affected site was proximal interphalangeal joints followed by wrist joint. But in males, the most common affected joint was knee. Rheumatoid factor was positive in 34.7%. Two patients were progressed to suspected rheumatoid arthritis and three patients were progressed to rheumatoid arthritis definitely.
CONCLUSION
This study showed similar results with other previously reported studies, but showed more knee joint involvement in males and less progression to rheumatoid arthritis than other studies. But compared with previous Korean studies, patient's age was older in this study and progression to rheumatoid arthritis was similar in both studies. The number of patients in this study was limited, large-scale epidemiologic study will be necessary for further investigation.