[Liberation of the oxygen radical from peripheral human phagocytes (granulocytes and monocytes) in patients with chronic polyarthritis].

Monocytes from patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis show a significantly higher release of O2-radicals in the chemiluminescence assay (2925 X 10(3) cpm) than those of healthy volunteers (267 X 10(3) cpm) (p = 0.01). This difference does not appear in a similar test with granulocytes, which in both groups tested show a mean chemiluminescence of 2739 X 10(3) and 2547 X 10(3) cpm. The chemiluminescence of monocytes is clearly time-course dependent: in the morning we saw the least response, at noon the highest. Following our results, corticosteroids lower chemiluminescence significantly (p = 0.05), while non steroidal antirheumatic drugs and long-term therapy with gold compounds, etc., do not affect chemiluminescence.