Clinical and histological evaluation of synovial needle-biopsies in rheumatoid arthritis. II. Relationship between local clinical activity and histological pattern.

The histological pattern of synovial needle-biopsies of 50 patients suffering from classical or definitive rheumatoid arthritis has been compared with the clinical activity of the disease. Each histological change was evaluated in terms of its value in characterizing local clinical activity. It was shown that most changes of the synovial ground tissue are in a positive correlation with local clinical activity. Among the vascular changes of the synovial membrane, oedema of vascular walls, exudation of fresh fibrin, leukocyte infiltration and thickening of vascular walls were in negative correlation, while chronic fibrin, lymphocytic or plasma cell infiltration and hyalinosis were in positive correlation with local clinical activity.