[A high rheumatoid factor titer caused by vaccination?].

A forty year old healthy adult man was admitted to our outpatient department because of a highly elevated rheumatoid factor. Since the person was planning an extended stay in Africa, we performed an extensive history, clinical and laboratory examination to rule out oligosymptomatic inflammatory diseases. We further analyzed if the person presented genetic risk factors to develop rheumatic diseases in the future or if the presence of the rheumatoid factor could be a reaction to multiple immunizations. Possible explanations for an elevated rheumatoid factor including the genetic risk factors are discussed.