Clinical rheumatology
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Clinical rheumatology · Mar 1990
Bacterial arthritis: are fever, rigors, leucocytosis and blood cultures of diagnostic value?
Clinical suspicion, positive gram stains and cultures of the synovial fluid are the fundamental criteria for the diagnosis of bacterial arthritis. Bacterial arthritis may, however, show an oligosymptomatic clinical course and thus lead to a delay in diagnosis. ⋯ Positive cultures of the synovial fluid (71.4%) were far more frequent than positive blood cultures (23.5%). We conclude, that the absence of fever, rigors, blood leucocytosis and positive blood cultures does not rule out the possibility of bacterial arthritis.