Arthritis and Rheumatism

Unexplained joint pain, fever, sed rate, diar

12/08/2006 11:22AM

Question:

My son is 10 years old. He began running a low grade fever, had a loose stool and complaining with his ankle hurting. The joint pain was roaming between both legs, ankles, hips and knees. He walked with a limp when he felt like walking at all. He ran the 101 - 102 temp usually in the afternoons for 10 days. His CBC came back fine but his SED rate was 41. There was also blood, mucas and elevated white cells in his stool. Days later he was hospitalized. His sed rate was 33 then and the white cells in the blood were few. Two days later his sed rate was back up to 40 but no fever and no more joint pain. Any help you can give us will be greatly appreciated. Tests have been run but no results have been given to us.

Answer:

My concern is that your child has a systemic inflammatory condition such as inflammatory bowel disease, vasculitis, systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or connective tissue disease based on the symptoms that you are describing. Evaluation should ideally be performed by a pediatric rheumatologist if available or by a rheumatologist if not already done. Pediatric gastroenterology should also be involved if his stool continues to have blood and white blood cells.

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Response by:

Johnny Su, MD
Assistant Professor
Division of Rheumatology
University Hospitals
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University