PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - M J Al-Matar
AU  - D A Cabral
AU  - R E Petty
TI  - Isolated tuberculous monoarthritis mimicking oligoarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
DP  - 2001 Jan 01
TA  - The Journal of Rheumatology
PG  - 204--206
VI  - 28
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/28/1/204.short
4100  - http://www.jrheum.org/content/28/1/204.full
SO  - J Rheumatol2001 Jan 01; 28
AB  - Isolated monoarthritis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the absence of clinical pulmonary disease is extremely rare in North America. After decades of consistent declines in incidence, a remarkable resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) is occurring in North America. It must always be considered in the differential diagnosis of chronic monoarthritis if devastating sequelae are to be avoided. We describe 2 cases of tuberculous arthritis in young children presenting with monoarthritis of the knee. The presumptive diagnosis in each case was oligoarticular onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Each had an atypical course for JRA, with lack of response to intraarticular corticosteroid. The diagnosis of TB arthritis was made only with synovial biopsy.