Urinary excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides by patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Several methods have been described for the determination of urinary acid mucopolysaccharides (1-4). It has been found that in normal individuals the daily urinary excretion varies with age and sex (4, 5). A few attempts have been made to correlate urinary excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides with different disease states. Craddock and Kerby (6) have reported that patients with impairment of renal function have a urinary excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides lower than that of normal individuals. They also found no significant differences between normal individuals and diabetic patients without renal involvement. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis Badin, Schubert, and Vouras (7) have demonstrated a high plasma concentration of acid mucopolysaccharides, but there have hitherto been no data available concerning their urinary excretion. This paper presents data on the urinary excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides by patients with rheumatoid arthritis and discusses the identity of the urinary acid mucopolysaccharides excreted in this disease.