Rubella arthritis. A study of twenty cases.

Twenty patients, five males and fifteen females, who had rubella arthritis were observed for periods ranging from one to ten years after recovery. Rubella arthritis in these patients was characterized by polyarthritis associated with fibrositis, myalgia, paresthesias and muscular weakness. All of the male patients but only one-third of the females had involvement of the knee joints. The small joints of the hands were the joints most commonly affected in women. Post-rubella arthritis rheumatic symptoms, especially fibrositis, persisted for many months in almost half of the females, not at all in the males. The leukocyte content of the blood tended to be low and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate accelerated in the few patients in which determinations were done.Latex tests were performed in 17 patients. Ten of the 17 were studied with the three-stage technique of Hall. Results of inhibition tests were positive in 80 per cent of the patients with rubella arthritis studied who were tested within 18 months after the onset of illness. None of the patients tested 18 months or more after rubella arthritis had positive reaction.