Cardiac involvement in progressive polyarthritis--an echocardiographic study.

Echocardiographic, electrocardiographic and roentgenologic examinations were performed in 50 patients with progressive polyarthritis without clinical signs of pericardial affection. At the same time, laboratory signs of the activity of the disease were evaluated. Using one-dimensional echocardiography, pericardial effusion was detected in 27 patients (54%). Neither valvular involvement nor specific changes in the myocardium were found. In the serum of patients with pericardial effusion the presence of the rheumatoid factor was statistically significantly more frequent than in patients without effusion. Patients with steroid therapy of the primary disease and a statistically significantly lower incidence of effusions than patients who were subjected to other forms of treatment. Echocardiography again proved to be the only sensitive non-invasive method capable of detecting small and medium-sized effusions.