Fractionation of the serum proteins by filter-paper electrophoresis in 14 coal-miners who had the characteristic radiological opacities of rheumatoid pneumoconiosis but no evidence of rheumatoid arthritis showed a reduction in the mean level of albumin and increases in the alpha-2 and gamma-globulins compared with the values in non-arthritic miners with simple coal-workers' pneumoconiosis and i...

A total of 231 sibships of the same sex (186 female, 45 male), in which the proband had classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been selected from rheumatology clinics. Each sibship member was questioned about symptomatic joints, which were then examined. Hospital records, radiographs, and rheumatoid factor measurements allowed each sibling to be classified as having classical, def...

In analogy with the two categories of reactants which are used in the serological tests for the unusual category of macroglobulins called rheumatoid factor, two fluorescent reactants have been prepared for the detection of rheumatoid factor in situ in tissue sections: fluorescent antigen-rabbit antibody (immune) complex, in the present study, and fluorescent aggregated human gamma-globulin, in ...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)is a debilitating chronic inflammatory disease whose characteristic pathology includes swollen, painful, and deformed joints. In recent decades, both clinical and basic scientific research have tried to determine the factors involved in the pathogenesis of this common disease. Although the cause of RA is still unknown, several factors that contribute to RA have been ide...

The rheumatoid pneumoconiosis syndrome was originally described as a characteristic chest radiographic appearance in coal-workers associated with clinical rheumatoid arthritis (Caplan, 1953). This association was later confirmed as real and not fortuitous by Miall, Caplan, Cochrane, Kilpatrick, and Oldham (1953) using an unselected population. The original communication defined the radiographic...