Prevalence of Sindbis- related (Pogosta) virus infections in patients with arthritis

O b j e c t ive. To determine the role of Pogosta virus as a triggering infection in non-specific arthritis. Methods. Serum samples of 142 pa tients with acute arthritis were screened for the evidence of Pogosta virus in fection. Serological tests for Chlamydia t ra ch o m at i s , s a l m o n e l l a , p a rvov i ru s B 1 9 , and B o rrelia bu rg d o r fe r i we re also carried out. As verified later, 78 of the patients had rheumatoid arthritis and 63 seronegative poly- or oligoarth ritis, while one had systemic lupus ery thematosus. Results. In the early stage of the joint symptoms 4 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 1 with seronegative polyarth ritis and 1 with systemic lupus erythematosus had recent P ogosta virus in fection. Four of them had probably had Pogosta disease at the time of the onset of arthritis. In 11 patients with a diag nosis of seronegative arthritis, serolog ical evidence of preceding infe c t i o n due to salmonella or Chlamydia trachomatis was found , strongly suggest ing classical reactive arthritis in these cases. Conclusions. Our study suggests that also a Sindbis virus infection may be a s s o c i ated both to an acute joint infl a m mation as a part of Pogosta disease or chronic arthritis. At present,this possi bility still needs further research.