[Possible use of glucocorticoids in the diagnosis of lung lesions and anemia in autoimmune diseases].

The author described a new pattern of the diagnosis of autoimmune processes in the lungs based on the results of a short-term pharmacological load with glucocorticoids (prednisolone, 30 mg per day for 7-10 days) and the successive evaluation of the X-ray picture time-course in the lungs in the frontal roentgenographic view before and after the load. He accounted for the alteration in the number and size of infiltrations and foci as well as the contents of the fluid in the pleura and interlobular fissures. The usage of the load proposed made it possible to reduce the terms and increase the preciseness of the diagnosis of pulmonary autoimmune conditions and to define the practicability of prolongation of the glucocorticoid treatment. Glucocorticoid load technique originated with the author permitted one to establish the autoimmune nature of anemia with regard to its tendency towards the regression and thus to define the policy of its further treatment as well as to differentiate autoimmune anemia in rheumatic patients from the anemia in the patients with paraneoplastic rheumatic syndromes.