Muscular Involvement in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Summary Groups of selected patients with rheumatoid arthritis and symptoms of muscular involvement were studied. Muscle biopsies showed foci of lymphocytes and degradation of contractile elements in a large proportion of the cases. Serum enzyme activity (CPK, GOT, LDH) was essentially normal in the patients studied. Only serum aldolase was frequently elevated. This was probably of non-muscular origin. Serum creatine was higher in the rheumatic patients than in normal subjects while serum creatinine was lower than in normal subjects. The creatine-creatinine ratio was higher in the rheumatic group of patients than in control subjects. The differences were statistically highly significant.