Skeletal Involvement in Secondary Syphilis Detected by Bone Scanning

Abstract

IN ADULTS, bony involvement in early acquired syphilis has been reported infrequently. 1 We describe a patient with secondary syphilis in whom clinical findings indicated syphilitic periostitis of the frontal bones and clavicles. Roentgenograms of these bones were normal, but a bone scan showed abnormalities. Report of a Case A 22-year-old man was hospitalized with a chief complaint of a painful, red, swollen left eye for approximately one month. Also, he had experienced headaches, myalgia, cervical and left preauricular lymphadenopathy, and chills with fever to 38.3 C. Three days before admission, he noted erythema, swelling, and tenderness over the left sternoclavicular joint and a nonpruritic erythematous maculopapular rash over his face and palms. His temperature was 37.6 C; pulse rate, 100 beats per minute; and blood pressure, 105/65 mm Hg. The left periorbital soft tissues and both left eyelids were erythematous and edematous. The left supraorbital ridge was exquisitely tender.