The _diagnosis_ is often missed because the possibility of gonorrhoea is
not suspected.
The denial of the disease by the patient is not always to be relied
upon, especially in the case of women, as they may be ignorant of its
presence. The chief points in the differential diagnosis from acute
articular rheumatism are, that the gonorrhoeal affection is more often
confined to one or two joints, has little tendency to wander from joint
to joint, and its progress is not appreciably influenced by salicylates,
although these drugs may relieve pain. The conclusive point is the
recognition of a gonorrhoeal discharge or of threads in the urine.
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