Lyme disease in the differential diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Clinically, there are some differences between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Lyme disease. Although Lyme arthritis exhibits marked differences from RA, it can cause erosion at joint due to chronic proliferative synovitis as similar to RA. In the literature, a case was reported where both entities were seen together. In this manuscript, we aimed to present a case with symmetric arthritis at small hand joints and arthralgia at wrist that mimicked RA but diagnosed as Lyme disease by history, clinical presentation and laboratory findings, and successfully treated.