[Laboratory diagnosis in rheumatology].

The laboratory diagnostics essentially contributed to the pathogenetic clarification of rheumatological problems and gives multifarious support to the rheumatologist in differential and activity diagnostics and thus also decisively contributes to early diagnostics and therapy. When the acute-phase-reactions serve for the differentiation of inflammatory-rheumatic diseases and degenerative diseases and for the establishment of the degree of activity, so the ASR further the diagnostic ascertainment of a rheumatic fever, the agglutination tests for proving the rheumatoid factor further the differential diagnosis of the rheumatoid arthritis, the LE-phenomenon and the ANF further the differential diagnosis of the LEV, the proof of cardiac auto-antibodies essentially furthers the diagnostics of carditis, the increase of uric acid the early recognition of gout, the synovial diagnostics at length became necessary for the clarification of clinically unclear mon- or oligoarthritides and the determination of the local activity for the observation and judgment of the course. Notwithstanding the primate of the clinic without an effective laboratory diagnostics a modern rheumatology can no more be performed nowadays.