LISTERIA-MONOCYTOGENES ARTHRITIS OF SEVERAL JOINTS

A patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) developed an infection caused by Listeria monocytogenes in her left knee and both shoulder joints. The clinical presentation of the disease was rather indolent with rela tively moderate joint symptoms. Moreover, the synovial fluid sample wa s only slightly turbid with a white blood cell count of 23.5 x 10(9)/L . As compared to the earlier reported cases of L. monocytogenes septic arthritis, our patient is unique because she had infection in several joints. The polyarticular joint involvement combined with the clinica l symptoms resembling the activation of RA posed us diagnostic difficu lties.