Multiple Joints Pain (Polyarthropathy): Or something else? Differential Diagnosis

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Lyme disease – infectious disease caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi; migratory arthralgia (joint pain) in stage II disease.

Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (M00-M99).

  • Chondrocalcinosis (synonym: pseudogout); gout-like disease of the joints caused by deposition of calcium pyrophosphate in cartilage and other tissues; leads, among other things, to joint degeneration (often of the knee joint); symptomatology resembles an acute gout attack
  • Enteropathic arthritis – occurrence of joint inflammation in the course of enterocolitis (intestinal inflammation).
  • Fibromyalgia (fibromyalgia syndrome) – syndrome that can lead to chronic pain (at least 3 months) in several regions of the body.
  • Gout (hyperuricemia); arthritis urica – recurrent acute arthritis in peripheral joints, usually monoarticular (“affecting one joint”).
  • Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA; synonyms: juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), juvenile chronic arthritis, JCA) – chronic arthritis (inflammatory disease of the joints) of the rheumatoid form in childhood (juvenile)In infancy, when complaints such as problems in the morning when getting up, when climbing stairs, swollen joints and “move out of round” think of early childhood oligoarthritis. Other early symptoms may include fatigue, tearfulness, and performance slump. Early childhood oligoarthritis is most common in little girls at the mean age of onset, 2 years. It is the most common form of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).
  • Bekhterev’s disease (ankylosing spondylitis; Latinized Greek: spondylitis “inflammation of the vertebrae” and ankylosans “stiffening”) – chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease with pain and stiffening of joints.
  • Behçet’s disease (synonym: Adamantiades-Behçet’s disease; Behçet’s disease; Behçet’s aphthae) – multisystem disease from the rheumatic form circle, which is associated with recurrent, chronic vasculitis (vascular inflammation) of the small and large arteries and mucosal inflammation; The triad (the occurrence of three symptoms) of aphthae (painful, erosive mucosal lesions) in the mouth and aphthous genital ulcers (ulcers in the genital region), as well as uveitis (inflammation of the middle eye skin, which consists of the choroid (choroid), the ray body (corpus ciliare) and the iris) is stated as typical for the disease; a defect in cellular immunity is suspected
  • Polymyalgia rheumatica – inflammatory rheumatic disease belonging to the group of vasculitides (vascular inflammation).
  • Polymyositis – inflammatory systemic disease of skeletal muscle with lymphocytic infiltration (invasion of T-lymphocytes); about 50% of patients suffer from muscle pain; 20 to 40% of cases show Raynaud’s syndrome
  • Psoriatic arthritis (arthritis due to psoriasis) – often there is an asymmetric polyarthritis.
  • Reactive arthritis (synonym: postinfectious arthritis / joint inflammation) – second disease after gastrointestinal (gastrointestinal tract concerning), urogenital (urinary and genital organs concerning) or pulmonary (lungs concerning) infections; refers to an arthritis, where pathogens in the joint (usually) can not be found (sterile synovialitis).
  • Reiter’s disease (synonyms: Reiter’s syndrome; Reiter’s disease; arthritis dysenterica; polyarthritis enterica; postenteritic arthritis; posturethritic arthritis; undifferentiated oligoarthritis; urethro-oculo-synovial syndrome; Fiessinger-Leroy syndrome; English Sexually acquired reactive arthritis (SARA)) – special form of a “reactive arthritis” (see above. ); secondary disease after gastrointestinal or urogenital infections, characterized by the symptoms of Reiter’s triad; seronegative spondyloarthropathy, which is triggered especially in HLA-B27 positive persons by an intestinal or urinary tract disease with bacteria (mostly chlamydia); Can manifest as arthritis (joint inflammation), conjunctivitis (conjunctivitis), urethritis (urethritis) and partly with typical skin changes.
  • Rheumatoid arthritis – chronic inflammatory multisystem disease, which usually manifests itself in the form of synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane). It is also called primary chronic polyarthritis (PcP); usually polyarthritis and symmetrical (may also start as monarthritis).
  • Sarcoidosis (synonyms: Boeck’s disease; Schaumann-Besnier’s disease) – granulomatous inflammation considered a multisystem inflammatory disease; polyarthritis.
  • Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) – systemic disease affecting the skin and connective tissue of the vessels, leading to vasculitides (vascular inflammation) of numerous organs, such as the heart, kidneys or brain