ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Chikungunya chronic joint disease causes debilitating arthralgia, significantly impacting the quality of life of affected individuals.
Methods:
In this study, patients underwent clinical follow-ups, joint biopsies, and pre-biopsy and 24 months post-biopsy serum dosage of cytokines.
Results:
All participants were female and had pain in 12 joints on average, with 41.17% exhibiting moderate disease activity. Histopathological analysis revealed collagen deposition. Indirect immunofluorescence detected the CHIKV glycoprotein E1 antigen, and an increase in cytokines.
Conclusions:
Persistent inflammation and ineffective antiviral immune responses leading to antigen persistence may contribute to chronic CHIKV arthritis.
Keywords:
Chikungunya; Inflammatory; Cytokines