RUBELLA-VIRUS AND CHRONIC JOINT DISEASE - IS THERE AN ASSOCIATION

Synovial fluid samples and/or biopsies from 79 patients with various c hronic inflammatory joint diseases or traumatic joint injury were test ed for rubella virus (RV) in order to confirm or refute results from o ther studies that suggested RV as a cause of chronic inflammatory join t disease. Sixty-eight of the 72 patients tested had RV antibodies. RV RNA was detected by reverse transcription-PCR in the synovial fluid c ells from two patients. RV was also isolated by cell culture from the synovial fluid of one of these two patients. This patient was a 42-yea r-old female with common variable immune deficiency and Mycoplasma hom inis arthritis, while the other was a 68-year-old female with rheumato id arthritis. While these results fail to confirm that RV is associate d with chronic inflammatory joint disease, they suggest that RV may pe rsist within a joint and be reactivated when cell-mediated immunity is suppressed.