STREPTOCOCCAL AGGLUTININS IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID (ATROPHIC) ARTHRITIS AND ACUTE RHEUMATIC FEVER

Abstract

1205 agglutination tests on 332 patients, using 4 strains of Strep. hemolyticus, showed that 54.5% of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis had positive blood-serum agglutinins. Patients with rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease, erysipelas and degenerative arthritis also had such agglutinins in 26, 9, 23, and 15% of the cases, respectively. The positive agglutination tests showed no evidence of strain specificity, nor were they correlated with an unusual erythrocyte sedimentation rate or with positive cutaneous reactions to the "nucleoprotein" of hemolytic streptococci, and the phenomena differed from that causing a rapid erythrocyte sedimentation rate and positive skin reactions to the "nucleoprotein" of hemolytic streptococci.