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Review
. 2021 Aug;40(8):3357-3362.
doi: 10.1007/s10067-020-05550-1. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Post-COVID-19 arthritis: a case report and literature review

M Gasparotto #  1 , V Framba #  2 , C Piovella  2 , A Doria  1 , Luca Iaccarino  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Post-COVID-19 arthritis: a case report and literature review

M Gasparotto et al. Clin Rheumatol. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is the novel pathogen responsible for the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) outbreak. Researchers and clinicians are exploring the pathogenetic mechanisms of the viral-induced damage and growing interest is focusing on the short-term and long-term immune-mediated consequences triggered by the infection. We will focus on post-SARS-CoV2 infection arthritis which may arise as a new pathological condition associated with COVID-19. In this article, we describe a case of acute oligoarthritis occurring 13 days after a SARS-CoV2 severe pneumonia in a middle-aged Caucasian man and we go over a brief review of the current available literature. We hypothesize that molecular mimicry might be the basic immunological mechanism responsible for the onset of COVID-19-related arthritis based on the current knowledge of SARS-CoV2 and on the known pathogenetic mechanism of viral-induced arthritis.

Keywords: Arthritis; COVID-19; Molecular mimicry; Reactive arthritis; SARS-CoV2.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient’s synovial fluid
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Knees X-ray
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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