Progression of rheumatoid arthritis following bone marrow transplantation. A case report with a 13-year followup.

The progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is documented in a patient receiving a sex-mismatched, allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) for gold-induced marrow aplasia. DNA typing confirmed a high probability of a full donor engraftment (complete chimerism). Although the RA was in complete remission 2 years post-BMT, clinical, laboratory, histologic, and radiologic evidence of the recurrence of synovitis from 3-13 years post-BMT is presented. Implications of these observations for theories of the pathogenesis of RA and the future of immunotherapies are discussed.