The capacity for fixation and activation of hemolytic complement by polyclonal IgM rheumatoid factors (RF) isolated from sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and monoclonal IgM-RF isolated from the cryoprecipitates of patients with IgM-IgG mixed cryoglobulinemia was examined. RF mixed with aggregated, reduced, and alkylated human IgG (Agg-R/A-IgG) in the fluid phase failed to significantl...

A comparative study of the distribution of immunoglobulins G, M, and A and C3 in the synovium and inside synovial fluid leucocytes and of the relative levels of IgG, IgM, AND C3 in paired samples of serum and synovial fluid from both seropositive and seronegative patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other types of non-infective synovitis shows that although there is no distinctive immunopatho...

We describe the simple, rapid turbidimetry of IgM rheumatoid factor in human serum by use of the Cobas-Bio centrifugal analyzer. Heat-aggregated human IgG is used as the antigen. The immunoturbidimetric reaction is monitored at 340 nm for 300 s, and the changes in absorbance after the antigen is added are used to prepare the standard curve. Test results are calculated from the stored curve and ...

Rheumatoid arthritis and primary biliary cirrhosis coexist in up to 6% of cases. Tumor necrosis factor alpha seems to have an important role in the pathogenesis of both diseases. Tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors have become an established therapeutic regimen for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The only approved drug for primary biliary cirrhosis is ursodeoxycholic acid. We describe th...

In rheumatoid disease only 4 cases have been reported in which lung nodules preceded arthritis. Two further cases are presented in which intrapulmonary nodules were noted at the onset of the disease, thus provoking a diagnostic dilemma. In the first patient rheumatoid factor tests were initially negative, and diagnostic thoracotomy was performed. In the second patient serological tests were pos...

The incidence of rheumatoid factor in inflammatory disorders of connective tissue, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, has been discussed by Ziff (1957), Black, Goldin, Poske, and Malmed (1959), Bywaters, Carter, and Scott (1959), Kellgren and Ball (1959), Dixon (1960), and Hill and Greenbury (1965), and in other rheumatic and non-rheumatic diseases by Ziff (1957), Kellgren and Ball (1959), and ...

Rheumatoid synovial fluid macrophages are compatible with synovial membrane fibroblasts in mixed cell culture. They do not appear to have had any immunological experience recognized by homologous rheumatoid blood lymphocytes. The fusion between macrophages which often takes place in cultures of rheumatoid synovial fluid cells seems to be the result of a cell membrane change between contiguous c...

BACKGROUND Levels of pentosidine (representative of advanced glycation end-products) in sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis are increased when compared with sera of other diagnoses or healthy controls. These levels have been reported to correlate with clinical indices of rheumatoid arthritis activity and with laboratory markers of inflammation. The purpose of this study was to find out i...