Infectious versus non-infectious causes of oligoarticular inflammatory arthritis: A prospective study from a tertiary care hospital in north India.

Oligoarticular arthritis (inflammation of upto 4 joints) has a wide range of infectious and non-infectious etiologies. The aim of our study was to identify the features which could help in the differentiation of infectious from non-infectious arthritis. The study was prospective and observational, and included 100 patients with oligoarticular inflammatory arthritis. The final diagnosis was made using standard diagnostic criteria and the patients were categorized into infectious and non-infectious groups. Among the 100 patients who were recruited, the following final diagnosis were made: peripheral spondyloarthritis (n = 37), axial spondyloarthritis (n = 11), tuberculosis (n = 19), brucellosis (n = 6), septic arthritis (n = 6), gouty arthritis (n = 5), early rheumatoid arthritis (n = 5), non-tubercular mycobacteria (n = 2), SLE (n = 2), post-chikungunya arthritis (n = 2), acute lymphocytic leukaemia (n = 1), pachydermoperiostosis (n = 1), sarcoidosis (n = 1) and juvenile idiopathoic arthritis (n = 1). The patients were categorized into two groups: infectious (33) and non-infectious (60). The presence of monoarthritis, clinically-significant weight loss, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and erosive arthritis were significantly more common in the infectious group as compared to the non-infectious group.