[The clinico-morphological assessment of the efficacy of local radiation therapy in rheumatoid arthritis].

Ten patients with rheumatoid arthritis underwent arthroscopy of knee joints and spot biopsy of the synovial membrane before and 6-12 months after intraarticular injection of radioactive gold-198. In 8 joints there was a decrease of inflammatory infiltration of the synovial membrane. Still, the clinical signs of arthritis persisted in 5 of them. In 3 cases, the clinical and morphological manifestations of arthritis remained practically unchanged. The decrease of inflammatory infiltration of the synovial membrane may favour a reduction of destructive potential of chronic synovitis even if the exudative component of inflammation is preserved. The clinicomorphological estimation of the results of local radiotherapy is more informative than the purely clinical one, for it allows the positive dynamics to be recorded even in the absence of evident clinical improvement.