Parvovirus B19 serology in early inflammatory polyarthritis--experience from a tertiary core teaching hospital in South India

This study was done to look for IgM antibody to parvovirus B19 in early inflammatory arthritis patients and their clinical correlations, if any. This was a retrospective case sheet based study and follow-up. IgM antibody to parvovirus B19 was studied in 47 patients who presented to the rheumatology outpatient department with early arthropathy of less than 24 weeks' duration during their first 3 months of onset or flare of arthritis. Seropositive patients were followed up till date. Seven out of the 47 patients had IgM parvo B19 antibody. Five of the 7 had underlying chronic infective, inflammatory and other pre-existing diseases. In 5 patients, the arthritis resolved completely. In the remaining 2, mild recurrent arthralgias were attributed to existing inflammatory diseases. Fever was present in the majority, but none of them had rash. The arthropathy was symmetrical type in the majority. Only 7 (14.8%) out the 47 patients with early inflammatory arthritis had antibody to parvovirus B19, 5 of the 7 had self-limiting course; there was no association of this virus with chronic inflammatory arthropathy in this cohort over a 9-year follow-up.