title: Unusual central nervous system involvement of rheumatoid arthritis: successful treatment with steroid and azathioprine.
abstract: Central nervous system involvement of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) frequently develops in patients who had a long-term history of RA, irrespective of the disease activity of systemic arthritis, and it has a high mortality rate despite treatment. Since clinical symptoms and radiologic signs are rather nonspecific, in short of doing biopsy, the diagnosis of rheumatoid meningitis is one of exclusion. However, the strongly positive rheumatoid factor in the cerebrospinal fluid is quite specific. We here report a 70-year-old man who had not been diagnosed as RA before he was admitted with neurological findings, who was diagnosed as RA later and successfully treated with prednisolone and azathioprine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Haydarpasa Numune Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. asumaninan@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Asuman Sengoz
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Inan
authors.forename: Seval
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masatlıoglu
authors.forename: Seyfi C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ozyurek
authors.forename: Derya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Engin
authors.forename: Ilknur
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Erdem
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001379:Azathioprine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008582:Meningitis, Aseptic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology*; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D005938:Glucocorticoids; D011239:Prednisolone; D001379:Azathioprine