Chlamydial infection. Results of tests for Chlamydia in patients suffering from acute Reiter's disease compared with results of tests of the genital tract and rectum in patients with ocular infection due to TRIC agent.

Abstract

The search for a causal agent of Reiter's disease has been pursued by workers in many centres. An unidentified agent was isolated in yolk sac from material from the urethra and conjunctiva of a patient suffering from Reiter's disease (Dunham, Rock, and Belt, 1947). The findings in 22 patients suffering from Reiter's disease were reported by Schachter, Barnes, Jones, Engleman, and Mayer (1966); isolation in yolk sac had been attempted in eight cases, with positive results from urethral, conjunctival, or synovial material in five. In 1967 the group at the Institute of Ophthalmology and the Whitechapel Clinic of The London Hospital set up specifically to study oculo- genital infection, reported results obtained up to that time and pointed out the possible danger of cross- contamination during isolation in yolk sac that rendered all but first passage isolates as possibly suspect (Harper, Dwyer, Garland, Jones, Treharne, Dunlop, Freedman, and Race, 1967). Twenty patients suffering from Reiter's disease had been tested; isolates had been obtained from urethral material from two and from synovial material from four, but no isolate had been obtained at the first passage in yolk sac (Dunlop, Freedman, Garland, Harper, Jones, Race, Du Toit, and Treharne, 1967).