Hans Reiter, a physician in the German army, first detected reiter’s syndrome during World War I. He described the condition as an inflammation of joints, urinary track and eyes. Since the symptoms of this disease show up in mild proportions, detection of such a medical condition is often difficult. Doctors find it complicated to diagnose a case of reactive arthritis for the reason that there is no specific laboratory test to confirm the presence of this disease.

Diagnosis of Reiter’s syndrome starts with a complete medical history of the patient with special emphasis on any previous infections or medical problems. Doctors insist on recording anomalies like flu-like symptoms, fever, vomiting or diarrhea. These conditions are indicative of a bacterial infection. The doctor may conduct blood tests to confirm the presence of reactive arthritis.

As a part of the diagnosis of Reiter’s syndrome, doctors may perform tests for infections that might be related to this disease. Patients are commonly checked for Chlamydia infection as latest studies indicate that a premature treatment of reactive arthritis stimulated by Chlamydia may reduce its progression. Doctors may test for bacterial infections using the cell samples taken from the patient’s throat, the urethra in case of men or the cervix in case of women. Stool or urine testing is also common. A test on the synovial fluid from the arthritic joint may help in determining the presence of infection in the joint.

Diagnosis of Reiter’s syndrome is aided by using X-rays that detect some of the symptoms like spondylitis, damage to cartilage, swelling of soft tissues, or shrinking of bone margins of the joint, sacroiliitis, and calcium deposits at places where the tendons are attached to the bone. The detection of this disease may take some time, since the diagnosis principally depends on a thorough physical examination of the patient. It may so happen that all the indications may not surface at a time while there may be cases where some people may exhibit only certain typical signs.

Certain symptoms like the sores on the skin are characteristic enough that their presence, along with joint involvement, may warrant a definite conclusion of the presence of Reiter’s syndrome. Of recent times, doctors prescribe tests to detect the presence of HLA-B27 gene. If the test is positive, it confirms the presence of one of the diseases belonging to the family of the spondyloarthropathies. This may be indicative of an incomplete detection of reactive arthritis in which case, the treatment of an arthritis specialist is recommended.