[Long-term course of chronic polyarthritis under basic drug therapy].

A retrospective analysis was undertaken of 31 patients with classical or proven chronic rheumatoid arthritis (CRA) who had been on a regimen of basic medication (gold salts, D-penicillamine, chloroquine, azathioprine--alone or in combination). Disease activity was checked by clinical, biochemical, immunological and radiological criteria. The laboratory results could not be altered by the basal medication and there was no relationship with the clinical and radiological findings, except for immunological results. None the less, the clinical symptoms improved under basal medication, even though the functional index got worse. The degree of joint destruction at the beginning and end of the observation period was markedly higher for seropositive than sero-negative cases, without significant differences in the rate of progression of joint destruction. Thus, definite long-term remission was achieved regarding the inflammatory changes but not the progressing joint destruction.