FELTY'S SYNDROME; ITS SEVERAL FEATURES, INCLUDING TISSUE CHANGES, COMPARED WITH OTHER FORMS OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Abstract

Calf muscle biopsies from patients showing chronic arthritis, leukopenia, and splenomegaly, presented a similar pathological picture to that seen in biopsies from those cases showing only chronic rheumatoid arthritis. The disease process in cases of chronic rheumatoid arthritis either with or without leukopenia and splenomegaly is a generalized one. Inasmuch as leukopenia or splenomegaly are not infrequent in patients with chronic rheumatoid arthritis, the occurrence of Felty''s Syndrome in patients with arthritis is but a matter of chance. It is believed that Felty gave the correct interpretation to the syndrome when he said "the several features are manifestations of one pathological process caused by a noxa which simultaneously affects the joints, the spleen and the blood leukocytes." This "Noxa" seems to be the unknown etiological agent of rheumatoid arthritis and the whole syndrome is a not unexpected complex.