Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.05.1978, Qupperneq 106

Table 2. Numoer, sex and age of HLA-B27 positive and
negative patients
HLA-B27
positive negative
No. of patients 31 17
Female/male ratio 14/17 12/5
Age
Mean 3? 35
Range 17-59 15-64
Table 3. Yersinia enterocolitica (serotype 3 or 9)
agglutinins in yersinia arthritis patients
HLA-B27
positive neqative
(31 cases) (17 cases)
Mean 3120 1210
Range 160-10240 80-5120
As far as the rheumatological history between
the two groups is concerned there was a difference
between the B27 positive and negative yersinia
arthritis patients. Three cases out of the 31 B27
positive cases had suffered from classical and
ankylosing spondylitis for 4, 10 and 13 years
before acute yersinia arthritis. Because the
prevalence of ankylosing spondylitis is between
0.5 and 2°/oo in the population studies carried
out in Finland and in different other countries and
because this should be less than 4% even in B27
positive male individuals, the frequency of anky-
losing spondylitis in this material is imexpectedly
high - three (18%) out of 17 HLA B27 positive
male patients (Table 5). This suggests that B27
positive spondylarthritis ankylopoetica patients are
probabiy even more susceptible to B27 positive
forms af reactive arthritis than B27 positive
individuals in general.
During the reTativeiy short follow-up period
none of our patients developed new signs of
sacroilitis, but the fact that patients with anky-
losing spondyliíis are particularly susceptible
to certain infections possibly supports the theory
that ankylosing spondylitis is a form of reactive
arthritis.
Aho and coworkers in Finland (3) have reported
that yersinia arthritis may be associated with
signs of Reiter’s syndrome during the acute
yersinia arthritis. In this material 3 patients
developed Reiter's syndrome during their acute
yersinia arthritis and in addition one had Reiter s
disease in his history. None of the B27 negative
patients had signs of Reiter's syndrome during
their disease. On the basis of this data it seems
probable that yersinia infection should be added to
the previously known etiologic trigger organisms
of Reiter's syndrome. Furthermore, also this
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