Bactericidal Power of Blood in Chronic Arthritis

Abstract

There is considerable evidence that chronic rheumatic joint disease, as well as acute rheumatic arthritis, is neither strictly a metabolic disturbance nor purely allergic in character but the result of hematogenous streptococcic infection of the joints. This evidence is of 4 types: the demonstration of streptococci in involved joints with typical structural alteration in direct relation to the actual distribution of the bacteria;1, 2, 3 the streptococcemia which occurs at intervals during the active phases of the disease;2, 4, 5 the presence of streptococcic antibodies in arthritic patients in concentrations greater than those usually found in normal individuals;5, 6, 7, 8 and the production experimentally of lesions in the joints of animals by the use of intravenous injections of streptococcus cultures.2, 10 On the other hand, other investigators have failed to corroborate some of these observations.11-13This positive evidence has led to the wide use of agglutination and sedimentation tests as diagnostic...