Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 26, 2023; 11(21): 5136-5146
Published online Jul 26, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i21.5136
Systematic review of fibroblastic rheumatism: A case report
Hua Guo, Qian Liang, Chen Dong, Qing Zhang, Zhi-Feng Gu
Hua Guo, Qian Liang, Chen Dong, Zhi-Feng Gu, Department of Rheumatology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Qing Zhang, Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Guo H was designed, conducted and manuscript writing; The data were collected primarily by Liang Q and Dong C; Statistical analysis and manuscript writing were partly completed by Zhang Q and Gu ZF; All authors agreed to publish the final manuscript in this journal.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest related to this paper.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Feng Gu, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Rheumatology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, No. 20 Xisi Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. guzf@ntu.edu.cn
Received: April 18, 2023
Peer-review started: April 18, 2023
First decision: May 19, 2023
Revised: June 14, 2023
Accepted: July 6, 2023
Article in press: July 6, 2023
Published online: July 26, 2023
Processing time: 92 Days and 17.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Fibroblastic rheumatism is a rare fibroproliferative disease with unknown etiology characterized by onset of rapidly progressive and destructive symmetrical inflammatory multiple arthritis. We report a rare case of a 50-year-old female presented with symmetric inflammatory polyarthriti. We found that a complete medical history, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry combined with clinical manifestations of skin nodules, arthralgia, and arthritis are the keys to a successful diagnosis of this disease. In terms of treatment, our patient was similarly treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, methotrexate, and tacrolimus, but the symptoms did not resolve and the joint destruction continued to develop. All in all, early diagnosis and aggressive and correct use of steroids and immunosuppressants are essential to prevent potentially harmful joint destruction and limb contracture. Meanwhile, further research is needed to determine effective treatment strategies.