The incidence of acute arthritis in stroke patients, and its impact on rehabilitation.

To investigate the occurrence of acute arthritis after stroke, we prospectively studied 111 patients presenting with their first stroke and no history of previous arthritis. Clinical, biochemical and serological assessment was complemented by brain CT scan; appropriate X-rays were taken of any inflamed joints and synovial fluid was collected and analysed. Those with aseptic arthritis were randomly chosen to receive either intra-articular steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Patients with significant renal impairment were excluded. Acute arthritis was observed within 8.34 (median) days, on the paretic side in 19 patients (10 crystal, 4 inflammatory osteoarthritis, 1 septic, 4 unexplained) and on the non-paretic side in 4 patients (1 inflammatory osteoarthritis, 1 septic, 2 unexplained). One patient had pseudogout affecting both sides. Thiazide therapy prior to the stroke was associated with gout in 3 patients. Hospital patients with arthritis had a longer median length of stay than those without (41 vs. 21 days: p = 0.01). Patients receiving intra-articular steroids recovered more rapidly than those treated with NSAIDs (p < 0.05). This prospective study demonstrates the occurrence of acute arthritis in paretic limbs after stroke. Physicians should be aware of this complication, and that administration of intra-articular steroids in aseptic cases speeds rehabilitation and recovery.

Pyomyositis complicating pneumococcal meningitis.

A young male with a previous splenectomy presented with Streptococcus pneumoniae meningitis complicated by pyomyositis. Pneumococcal meningitis in asplenic patients is well recognized, but the association of pyomyositis as a complication has not to our knowledge been previously reported.

Antibodies to cardiolipin in stroke: association with mortality and functional recovery in patients without systemic lupus erythematosus.

Antibodies to cardiolipin were measured in 100 consecutive patients with first ever stroke, on admission and at three and six months after the acute event. One hundred healthy, age- and sex-matched, British elderly individuals were also screened for antibodies to cardiolipin as a control group. Elevated levels of anticardiolipin antibody (i.e. 5 SD above the laboratory control mean) were present in none of the control group, but in 21 per cent of the patients with stroke. Thirteen of these 21 patients (62 per cent) died within three months, compared to 17 (21.5 per cent) of the seventy-nine patients without elevated levels of anticardiolipin antibodies (p less than 0.001). Six of the eight survivors with persistently elevated anticardiolipin antibodies had significant residual disability following stroke (Barthel score 0-9) compared to 11 of the 62 without (p less than 0.001). Two patients with initially raised anticardiolipin antibodies who became independent at six months showed a progressive decline in the level of these antibodies to normal. The presence of high levels of anticardiolipin antibody did not correlate with other recognized prognostic indices of stroke, except for incontinence. No correlation was noted between levels of antibody to cardiolipin, antinuclear factor, antibody to double-stranded DNA and C-reactive protein, either in the stroke patients or in the elderly control population. Hypertension was significantly more common in the patients with high anticardiolipin antibodies than in the rest of the patients in the stroke population (p = 0.33). There was no correlation between levels of anticardiolipin antibody and age. Anticardiolipin antibody may be considered as an independent prognostic marker for both mortality and clinical outcome after acute stroke.

Anticardiolipin antibody associated ischaemic strokes in elderly patients without systemic lupus erythematosus.

We describe four elderly stroke patients--two men and two women--who had significantly elevated levels of anticardiolipin antibody in the absence of systemic lupus erythematosus or other connective-tissue disease.