The purpose of this study was to validate our hypothesis that centrifugation may eliminate false-positive leucocyte esterase (LE) strip test results caused by autoimmune diseases in the diagnosis of knee infection. Between January 2016 and May 2019, 83 cases, including 33 cases of septic arthritis and 50 cases of aseptic arthritis, were enrolled in this study. To further validate our hypothesis, another 34 cases of inflammatory arthritis from the Department of Rheumatology of our institution were also included. After aspiration, one drop of synovial fluid was applied to LE strips before and after centrifugation. The results were recorded after approximately three minutes according to the different colour grades on the colour chart. The differences of LE results between each cohort were analyzed.Aims
Methods
