Symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome

General information about symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome: The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome. This symptom information has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome. Furthermore, symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of symptoms and whether they are indeed symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome.

List of symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome: The list of symptoms mentioned in various sources for Reiter’s syndrome includes:

• Early symptoms of an initial infection
  • Flu-like symptoms
  • Fever
  • Vomiting
  • Gastrointestinal symptoms
  • Diarrhea
• Arthritis
  • Joint pain
  • Joint swelling
  • Joint redness
  • Joint warmth
  • Joint stiffness
  • Knee arthritis
  • Ankle arthritis
  • Feet arthritis
  • Toe arthritis
  • Enthesopathy (inflammation of tendon-bone attachments)
  • Heel pain
  • Shortening and thickening of fingers and toes
  • Heel spurs
  • Spondylitis (vertebrae inflammation)
  • Sacroiliitis
  • Spine arthritis
  • Back pain
  • Tendonitis
  • Ligament inflammation
• Eye symptoms
  • Conjunctivitis - about 50-75% of cases
  • Uveitis
  • Iris inflammation
  • Cornea inflammation
  • Eye redness
  • Eye pain
  • Eye irritation
  • Blurred vision
  • Watery eyes
• Urinary tract symptoms (male)
  • Urethritis
  • Non-specific urethritis
  • Increased urination
  • Urinary burning
  • Urethritis
  • Penis discharge
  • Pus in urine
  • Prostatitis
  • Fever
  • Chills
• Urinary tract symptoms (female)
  • Cervicitis
  • Urethritis
  • Urinary burning
  • Salpingitis (inflammation of the fallopian tubes)
  • Vulvovaginitis
  • Vaginitis
• Heart problems - about 10% of long-term cases
  • Aortic regurgitation
  • Pericarditis
  • Heart-valve problems
• Other symptoms
  • Mouth ulcers
  • Skin rashes
  • Penis tip ulcers (balanitis circinata) - small and painless sores.
  • Keratoderma blennorrhagica - small nodule rashes on soles of feet (sometimes palms of hands)
  • Thickening palms
  • Thickening soles of feet
  • Thickening of skin around the nails
  • Dysentery

Symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome: The symptoms can affect many different parts of the body, but most typically affect the urogenital tract, the joints, and the eyes. Less common symptoms are mouth ulcers, skin rashes, and heart-valve problems. The signs may be so mild that patients do not notice them. They usually come and go over a period of several weeks to several months.

Urogenital Tract Symptoms

Reiter’s syndrome often affects the urogenital tract, including the prostate, urethra, and penis in men and the fallopian tubes, uterus, and vagina in women. Men may notice an increased need to urinate, a burning sensation when urinating, and a discharge from the penis. Some men with Reiter’s syndrome develop prostatitis, inflammation of the prostate gland. Symptoms of prostatitis can include fever, chills, increased need to urinate, and a burning sensation when urinating.

Women with Reiter’s syndrome also develop signs in the urogenital tract, such as inflammation of the cervix (cervicitis) or inflammation of the urethra (urethritis), which can cause a burning sensation during urination. In addition, some women also develop salpingitis (inflammation of the fallopian tubes) or vulvovaginitis (inflammation of the vulva and vagina). These conditions may or may not cause any symptoms.

Joint Symptoms or Arthritis

The arthritis associated with Reiter’s syndrome typically affects the knees, ankles, and feet, causing pain and swelling. Wrists, fingers, and other joints are less often affected. Patients with Reiter’s syndrome commonly develop inflammation where the tendon attaches to the bone, a condition called enthesopathy. Enthesopathy may result in heel pain and the shortening and thickening of fingers and toes. Some people with Reiter’s syndrome also develop heel spurs, bony growths in the heel that cause chronic or long-lasting foot pain.

Arthritis in Reiter’s syndrome can also affect the joints in the back and cause spondylitis (inflammation of the vertebrae in the spinal column) or sacroiliitis (sa-kro-il-e-i-tes), inflammation of the joints in the lower back that connect the spine to the pelvis. People with Reiter’s syndrome who have the HLA–B27 gene have a greater chance of developing sacroiliitis and spondylitis.

Eye Involvement

Conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the mucous membrane that covers the eyeball and eyelid, develops in about 50 percent of people with urogenital Reiter’s syndrome and 75 percent of people with enteric Reiter’s syndrome. A few people may develop uveitis, an inflammation of the inner eye. Conjunctivitis and uveitis can cause redness of the eyes, eye pain and irritation, and blurred vision. Eye involvement typically occurs early in the course of Reiter’s syndrome, and symptoms may come and go.

Other Symptoms

About 20 to 40 percent of men with Reiter’s syndrome develop small, shallow, painless sores or lesions, called balanitis circinata, on the end of the penis. A small percentage of men and women develop rashes of small hard nodules on the soles of the feet, and less often on the palms of the hands or elsewhere. These rashes are called keratoderma blennorrhagica. In addition, some people with Reiter’s syndrome develop mouth ulcers that come and go. In some cases, these ulcers are painless and go unnoticed.

About 10 percent of people with Reiter’s syndrome, usually those with prolonged disease, develop heart problems including aortic regurgitation (leakage of blood from the aorta into the heart chamber) and pericarditis (inflammation of the membrane that covers and protects the heart).¹

More symptoms of Reiter’s syndrome: In addition to the above information, to get a full picture of the possible symptoms of this condition and its related conditions, it may be necessary to examine symptoms that may be caused by complications of Reiter’s syndrome, underlying causes of Reiter’s syndrome, associated conditions for Reiter’s syndrome, risk factors for Reiter’s syndrome, or other related conditions.

Medical articles on symptoms: These general reference articles may be of interest:

• Symptoms of the Silent Killer Diseases
• Symptoms and Medical Malpractice

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