Sixteen patients with aseptic
arthritis developing after gonorrhoea and 14 patients with
arthritis after nongonococcal urogenital
infection have been analysed with respect to
clinical course, roentgenological signs, and humoral as well as cellular immune responses to Neisseria gonorrhoeae
antigen. Fifty-eight healthy blood donors were used as controls. The clinical pattern did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. Eye or skin lesions indicative of
Reiter's syndrome were found in 5 patients of both groups. Signs of
sacroiliac arthritis were found in 8 and 6 patients respectively. Gonococcal
complement fixation was positive in 9 of 16 patients in the postgonorrhoeal
arthritis group and in 0 of 14 patients in the
arthritis group with nongonococcal urogenital
infection. The lymphocyte stimulation induced by gonococcal
antigen was significantly greater in patients with postgonorrhoeal
arthritis than in healthy controls. When reference was made to the results of stimulation of the lymphocytes with
PPD, there was also a significant difference in the lymphocyte reactivity to gonococcal
antigen between the group of patients with postgonorrhoeal
arthritis and that of patients with
arthritis after non-gonococcal urogenital
infection. No such difference was noted between the latter group and the healthy controls. The clinical and immunologic data argue in favour of the hypothesis that Neisseria gonorrhoeae may induce an aseptic
arthritis which sometimes presents as a complete
Reiter's syndrome.