Polyarthritis associated with myelodysplastic syndromes: 5 cases

We analyzed the clinical and biological characteristics of 5 patients who demonstrated polyarthritis associated with a myelodysplastic syndrome. Polyarthritis either preceded (3 cases) or appeared during the course (2 cases) of the hematological malignancy. Two patterns of rheumatic manifestations were observed: rheumatoid type arthritis and manifestations of polymyalgia rheumatica. X-ray demonstrated non erosive lesions. Biological evaluations showed a non specific inflammatory syndrome and rheumatoid factor was negative. In 3 patients prednisolone improved the symptomatology while chemotherapy cured the polyarthritis in the two remaining cases. These observations indicate that hematological diseases can be revealed by rheumatic manifestations and that both diseases have a parallel evolution.