Iliopoulos A, Karras D, Ioakimidis D, Arvanitis A, Tsamis N, Iakovou I, Anagnostopoulos I, Giannikos N
Department of Rheumatology, 401 General Army Hospital of Athens, Greece.
J Rheumatol. 1995 Feb;22(2):252-4.
During the last 5 years we observed a significant decrease in the incidence of newly established cases of Reiter's syndrome (reactive arthritis) in Greek Army personnel. Our study was initiated to validate this observation and to evaluate a possible change in the prevalence of Reiter's syndrome (RS) associated infections.
The case records of patients with reactive arthritis (ReA) admitted during the periods 1980-83 and 1989-92 at a large Army Hospital were studied retrospectively and the cases of RS were reviewed. In addition, the prevalence of cases with urethritis and dysentery that presented to the hospital in the same periods was studied in retrospect, as these infections are known to participate in the etiopathogenesis of RS.
A significant decrease in the overall incidence of the randomly presented RS cases during the second 4 year period was detected (27 versus 4 cases, p < 0.0001, chi 2 test). A similar significant decrease in the number of cases with gonococcal and nongonococcal urethritis was observed while the prevalence of dysentery was not significantly altered during the defined intervals.
We suggest that the anti-AIDS campaign which began after the years 1984-85 is the principal cause of the observed change of epidemiology of RS cases appearing in the Greek Army.
在过去5年中，我们观察到希腊军队人员中新发赖特综合征（反应性关节炎）病例的发病率显著下降。我们开展这项研究以证实这一观察结果，并评估赖特综合征（RS）相关感染患病率的可能变化。
回顾性研究1980 - 1983年和1989 - 1992年期间一家大型军队医院收治的反应性关节炎（ReA）患者的病例记录，并对RS病例进行复查。此外，回顾性研究同期在该医院就诊的尿道炎和痢疾病例的患病率，因为已知这些感染参与RS的发病机制。
在第二个4年期间，随机出现的RS病例的总体发病率显著下降（27例对4例，p < 0.0001，卡方检验）。观察到淋菌性和非淋菌性尿道炎病例数也有类似的显著下降，而在规定时间段内痢疾的患病率没有显著变化。
我们认为1984 - 1985年后开展的艾滋病防治运动是希腊军队中出现的RS病例流行病学变化的主要原因。
