<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Acute polyarthritis requires a comprehensive differential diagnosis in order to establish its etiology. Moreover, sometimes it may unfold unexpected comorbidities, thus necessitating an individualized management approach.</p>
<p>This article describes the case of an elderly patient whose initial presentation of acute polyarthritis was interpreted as crystal induced-arthritis demonstrated by the presence of calcium pyrophosphate and lipid crystals in the synovial fluid. The clinical deterioration of the patient along with the suspicion of a systemic infection required interdisciplinary collaboration and led to his transfer to the infectious diseases department where the diagnosis of sepsis from unknown origin was added. Further investigations unmasked a large complicated pancreatic pseudocyst that eventually ruptured into the peritoneal cavity and led to the patient's death.</p>
</abstract>

Acute polyarthritis requires a comprehensive differential diagnosis in order to establish its etiology. Moreover, sometimes it may unfold unexpected comorbidities, thus necessitating an individualized management approach.
This article describes the case of an elderly patient whose initial presentation of acute polyarthritis was interpreted as crystal induced-arthritis demonstrated by the presence of calcium pyrophosphate and lipid crystals in the synovial fluid. The clinical deterioration of the patient along with the suspicion of a systemic infection required interdisciplinary collaboration and led to his transfer to the infectious diseases department where the diagnosis of sepsis from unknown origin was added. Further investigations unmasked a large complicated pancreatic pseudocyst that eventually ruptured into the peritoneal cavity and led to the patient's death.

A Clinical Case of Acute Polyarthritis Unmasking Severe Comorbidity

“Carol Davila”, University of Medicine and Pharmacy

“Titu Maiorescu” University of Medicine

Internal Medicine

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"A Clinical Case of Acute Polyarthritis Unmasking Severe Comorbidity"}

Acute polyarthritis requires a comprehensive differential diagnosis in order to establish its etiology. Moreover, sometimes it may unfold unexpected...

A Clinical Case of Acute Polyarthritis Unmasking Severe Comorbidity

Published Online: Sep 13, 2021

Page range: 47 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/inmed-2021-0174

Keywords
crystal induced arthritis, sepsis, septic arthritis, red man syndrome, abdominal mass

© 2021 Andra Carmina Ciotoracu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

A Clinical Case of Acute Polyarthritis Unmasking Severe Comorbidity

Published Online: Sep 13, 2021

Page range: 47 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/inmed-2021-0174

Keywordscrystal induced arthritis, sepsis, septic arthritis, red man syndrome, abdominal mass

© 2021 Andra Carmina Ciotoracu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
crystal induced arthritis, sepsis, septic arthritis, red man syndrome, abdominal mass