Spondyloarthritis and nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis as paraneoplastic manifestations in treatment-naive Burkitt lymphoma

Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthropathy (nr-axSpA) is a clinical diagnosis of symptoms matching inflammatory back pain criteria without radiological lesions at the sacroiliac joint. The frequency of an early nr-axSpA-like presentation in lymphoma patients has not been clarified. Here we report a woman in her 20s with a fever and musculoskeletal discomfort. Detailed investigations revealed that she was suffering from Burkitt lymphoma in which nr-axSpA-like symptoms were a musculoskeletal manifestation of the disease, irrelevant to the anti-neoplastic treatment.

Automated summary

Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthropathy (nr-axSpA) is a clinical diagnosis of inflammatory back pain without radiological lesions at the sacroiliac joint. We report a case of Burkitt lymphoma in a woman in her 20s, presenting with fever and musculoskeletal discomfort resembling nr-axSpA symptoms, which were unrelated to the anti-neoplastic treatment.