Constellation of symptoms may present in patients with chikungunya

Patients with chikungunya may present a constellation of symptoms including peripheral joint involvement, myalgia, back pain and non-musculoskeletal manifestations, according to researchers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Investigators evaluated 172 patients with chikungunya infection confirmed by either polymerase chain reaction or immunoglobulin M enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays between June 2014 and September 2014. Patients had a mean age of 21.1 years and about half of patients (52.9%) were women. Overall, 65.5% of patients were aged 16 years or older, 25.7% were between 17 years and 54 years, and 8.8% were older than 55 years.

Investigators identified patient demographics, clinical manifestations and comorbidities, and compared patients with peripheral arthralgia to patients without joint involvement.

They found peripheral arthralgia in 156 patients (90.7%) and synovitis in 49 patients (31.4%). Bivariate analysis showed patients with arthralgia tended to be older (21.3 years vs. 8.2 years) and reported more headaches (87.2% vs. 50%), myalgia (85.9% vs. 50%), anorexia (71.8% vs. 37.5%) back pain (63.5% vs. 6.2%), nausea (62.8% vs. 18.8%), dizziness (48.1% vs. 12.5%) and orbital pain (47.4% vs. 6.2%) compared to patients without involvement of peripheral joints.

Investigators discovered no associations with gender, rash, elevated liver enzymes, pulmonary symptoms, cardiac or renal manifestations, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain or hematologic abnormalities, or with comorbidities including diabetes, hypertension, malignancies, asthma or chronic kidney disease. - by Shirley Pulawski

Reference:

Arroyo-Ávila M, et al. Paper #2033. Presented at: American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting; Nov. 7-11, 2015; San Francisco.

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.