[Possibilities and prospects of multiparameter immunologic examination in the diagnosis and prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis].

The authors have analysed data from literature and their own results concerning multiparameter examination of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis. An effort has been made to establish a correlative relationship between changes in the following immunologic values: the level of rheumatoid factor, circulating immune complexes, antibodies to streptolysin-0 and immunoglobulin G; the number of T-lymphocytes and the quantity of natural cells of the killers and the hormone regulatory activity of thymus. Positive interdependence between the presence of rheumatoid factor and that of antibodies to streptolysin-0 as well as an increase in the content of circulating hormone complexes has been determined. In view of absence of one value which is strictly specific and compulsory for rheumatoid arthritis, it is only complex investigation that allows to describe the trends in changes of the immunologic state of the patient with rheumatoid arthritis.