Poncet's disease in a north Indian hospital

Although the entity of tuberculous rheumatism or Poncet's disease has somet imes been the subject of debate, it has been reported infrequently in the E nglish literature. We discuss here seven patients (5 women, 2 men; age 18-4 8 years) who presented primarily with polyarthritis and fever and developed pulmonary, pleural or nodal tuberculosis later in the course of disease. R heumatoid arthritis, collagen vascular diseases and other common causes of polyarthritis were ruled out by appropriate investigations. Polyarthritis r esolved in all the patients after the institution of antitubercular treatme nt and did not recur, thus providing a therapeutic confirmation of the clin ical diagnosis.