Clinical Brief
Arthritis of Sickle Cell Anemia
Abstract
AbstractDuring a two-year period, five patients with sickle cell anemia were encountered who had a similar type of recurrent and migratory polyarthritis most commonly involving the elbow joints. The disease was characterized by severe pain of the joints, marked tenderness of the more severely involved joints, with mild to moderate fever and moderate inflammatory joint fluid response. One patient developed aseptic necrosis of femoral heads. Most of the patients had no other associated symptoms at the time of the arthritis episodes. In four of five patients, the clinical findings were limited to the joints without evidence of bone infarction. One patient had thigh tenderness at the time of the arthritis, and three patients showed radiographic evidence of previous bone infarction adjacent to the involved joints.This content is limited to qualifying members.
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