Nickel sulphate, food additives and seronegative arthritis: is there any relationship?

Seronegative spondilo-arthropathies are characterized by particular clinical features such as sacroileitis, spondylitis and asymmetric peripheral arthritis mainly involving the lower limbs and negative rheumatoid factor. In most cases, they are associated with the HLA class I antigen B 27 (1). We have recently reported that in few selected cases of seronegative arthritis, articular symptoms may be triggered by food antigens (2). Therefore, as a complement to the above study (2), we discuss here the association between food additives, other substances like nickel sulphate and seronegative spondilo-arthropathies. In this study, we have enrolled 88 subjects, 54 females and 18 males, with ages ranging from 12 to 60 years, affected by seronegative arthritis and with suspected food additive intolerance on the basis of an improvement of symptoms after a food additives-free diet.