Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found the blood tests of patients with the chikungunya virus can often be mistaken for rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study published in Arthritis and Rheumatology.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause a fever, rash and severe joint pain in hands, feet, knees, neck and elbows that can linger for months and even years. In 2014, more than 2,300 Americans caught the virus, including nearly 700 people in New York State and roughly a dozen in Florida.
The study authors evaluated 10 St. Louis-area residents who had traveled to Haiti in June 2014, where they were infected with chikungunya virus, for seven to 10 weeks after their symptoms began.
During the evaluation period, eight patients developed persistent arthritis, several with joint pain so severe they had difficulty walking. The researchers compared the blood test results of the chikungunya patients with the test results of rheumatoid arthritis patients who had not yet received treatment and found the tests measured similar levels of specialized immune cells in the blood.
Researchers had to perform highly specialized tests of the immune system to positively identify chikungunya.
According to the study authors, the findings of the study highlight the importance of physicians obtaining detailed travel and medical histories from patients being evaluated for rheumatoid arthritis to help distinguish the two conditions.
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