[The characteristics of the clinical course of rheumatic diseases in persons subjected to the effect of ionizing radiation after the accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Electric Power Station].

Results are submitted of clinical, laboratory and immunological studies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), systemic scleroderma (SSD), with n = 386, 35, 23 respectively, who had been exposed to ionizing radiation from the ChPP reactor accident. In the above patients, serum interferon (SI) levels were found out to be increased while those of natural killer cells (NKs) decreased by comparison with healthy donors; NKs appeared to be significantly lower (P < 0.001) in SLE and SSD patients than they were in RA ones and healthy subjects.