History
A 73-year-old female patient
presented with a 9-month history of inflamed and slowly enlarging
livid-reddish skin lesions on her right knee and the dorsa of the
right foot. The skin disease had begun approximately 1 year
earlier, when the patient developed on the same extremity a
map-like marginally expanding erythematous skin rash which vanished
without therapy after 1 month. Within the next month, she noted
swelling and pronounced pain in her right foot, and later markedly
increased pain in her right knee. Since the patient suffered from
gonarthrosis, the symptoms were considered as an exacerbation of
degenerative joint disease. However, inflammatory skin changes
gradually evolved over the symptomatic joints. Moreover, she lived
in rural area, and recalled repeated tick bites.
Additionally, she had varicose
veins, and complained of low-back pain and hypertension. For a
chronic pain syndrome she was regularly taking analgesics and
antiinflammatory medication.
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: