Rheumatoid Nodulosis Research Articles

Rheumatoid nodulosis: an unusual variant of rheumatoid disease.

A middle-aged man developed multiple subcutaneous nodules associated with palindromic rheumatism. There was little evidence of synovitis; however multiple cyst-like intraosseous radiolucencies were noted. Nodules from two sites were histologically typical rheumatoid nodules. Subjective and objective improvement occurred during penicillamine therapy. This clincial presentation seems sufficiently distinctive to warrant characterization as a variant of rheumatoid disease termed by us: rheumatoid nodulosis.

Keeping the Disease in Mind

A 61-year-old woman, whose rheumatoid arthritis had been quiescent for 9 years, developed a crop of 16 painless bilateral episcleral rheumatoid nodules without any flareup of her joint disease. Biopsy of the lesions disclosed lymphocytic and plasmacytic infiltration within the conjunctiva, overlying palisading granulomas with elongated epithelioid histiocytes, multinucleated giant cells, and central necrobiotic degeneration of the collagen of the episclera and superficial sclera. The rheumatologic designation for the development of groups of subcutaneous nodules in inactive rheumatoid arthritis is rheumatoid nodulosis. This report is the first description of this entity in the ocular adnexa.