Amyloidosis complicating Reiter's syndrome.

Reiter (1916) described the case of a young army officer who developed urethritis, conjunctivitis, and arthritis after an attack of dysentery. Although Brodie (1818) had described five similar cases, this triad of urethritis, conjunctivitis, and arthritis of non-gonococcal origin has become known as Reiter's syndrome. Since that time a considerable literature has developed about this disease, the manifestations of which are protean (Weinberger, Ropes, Kulka, and Bauer, 1962). However, as far as can be ascertained, there appears to be no previous report of amyloidosis occurring in Reiter's syndrome. This is surprising as there are so many features of similarity between Reiter's syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis, which is one of the commonest causes of secondary amyloidosis. In spite of the similarity between the two diseases, Reiter's syndrome is regarded as an entity. The case is here reported of a young man with Reiter's syndrome, who had extensive lesions of keratodermia blennorrhagica and who developed amyloidosis, affecting particularly the alimentary tract.