Reiter's disease in northern India. A clinical and immunogenetic study.

Thirty-six patients fulfilling the criteria for Reiter's disease were studied (29 men and 7 women; 4:1). The mean age of onset was 23.8 years; in 75% of patients the onset was in the second and third decades. Clinical manifestations included low back pain and stiffness (69%), non specific urethritis (53%), heel pain (44%), radiographic sacroiliitis (42%), conjunctivitis (39%), dysentery and diarrhoea (33%), mucosal ulcerations (17%) kidney disease (14%), anterior uveitis (19%), and keratoderma blennorrhagicum (8%). Peripheral arthritis was mono or oligoarthritis in 58% of patients, mainly affecting the large joints of lower extremities, and it was often asymmetric (mean degree of asymmetry = 0.37). HLA-B27 antigen was detected in 83% of 36 patients compared with 5.9% of 118 controls (relative risk 79, corrected Fisher's P = 7.719E-18).