[The clinico-morphological characteristics of synovial membrane involvement in beta-thalassemia]. / Kliniko-morfologicheskaia kharakteristika porazheniia sinovial'noi obolochki pri beta-talassemii.

Using data on optic and electron microscopy the authors give characteristics of lesions in the synovial membrane of the knee joints in 6 patients with an intermediary form of beta-thalassemia. Multiple reduplication of the basal membrane was noted in all the vessels, the width of the noncellular component of the vessels increased several times and its stratification was clearly seen. Deposits of iron oxide were revealed in biopsy samples of the synovial membrane of all the patients. Those deposits were in the form of microgranular intracellular inclusions in phagocytosing cells of the superficial stroma of villi but more often they were found in the cytoplasm of the vessel cells and pericytes.

[Osteoarthropathy in beta-thalassemia]. / Osteoartropatiia pri beta-talassemii.

A total of 45 patients with beta-thalassemia and 30 patients with thalassemia intermedia underwent clinical and x-ray examinations. Electron microscopy was used to examine biopsy specimens of the synovial membrane from 6 patients with homozygous thalassemia intermedia. It has been revealed that damage to the osseous system and joints is of systemic nature and depends on the clinical form of the pathological process. Morphological methods have demonstrated abnormal metabolism of iron with its deposition in the tissues and impairment of the vessels of the microcirculatory bed.

[Eosinophilic fasciitis (Shulman's syndrome)]. / Eozinofil'nyi fastsiit (sindrom Shul'mana).

The method of optic and electron microscopy was used to examine the skin, muscle and fascia in 8 patients with eosinophilic fasciitis aged from 20 to 57 years with the disease duration from 6 months to 3.5 years. When examining biopsy samples the authors paid special attention to the state of collagenic structure, cellular elements of the skin connective tissue, fascia and intermuscular layers, changes in the cross-striated muscle adjacent to the fascia, composition of cellular infiltrates as well as to the state of vascular microcirculation. It has been shown that with the given disease one can observe exudative-infiltrative processes with alteration of the vascular bed in the fascia and epimysium and the reaction of the microcirculatory bed of the skin and muscle with subsequent outcome into sclerosis at later periods of the disease. But the morphological data allow exclusion of the diffuse nature of microcirculation derangement in eosinophilic fasciitis. Morphogenesis of vascular lesions in this disease differs from such in scleroderma that suggests two different diseases.

[Importance of early diagnosis in the dispensary care of patients with rheumatic diseases]. / Znachenie rannei diagnostiki v dispanseriztasii bol'nykh revmaticheskimi zabolevaniiami.

The most important condition for effective prophylactic medical examination is early detection of diseases. The efficacy of prophylactic medical examination of rheumatic fever patients rises considerably under the conditions of stage-by-stage therapy. Another important condition for early detection and diagnosis is raising qualifications of general practitioners in the field of rheumatology.

[Formation and destruction of the skin collagen structures in systemic scleroderma]. / Formirovanie i destruktsiia kollagenovykh struktur kozhi bol'nykh sistemnoi sklerodermiei.

Histological, electron microscopic, and morphometric studies of skin biopsies from 70 patients with systemic sclerodermia showed an increase in biosynthetic processes both in the affected and nonaffected parts of the skin. Enhanced neofibrillogenesis was found only in areas of sclerodermic lesions. Abnormalities in newly formed collagen structures as well as splitting of newly formed collagen fibrillae into microfibrillae were observed. In unaffected skin areas two types of destruction of collagen fibrillae were observed: extracellular destruction and fibroplasia.

[Ultrastructure of the skin in systemic scleroderma]. / Ul'trastruktura kozhi pri sistemnoi skerodermii

Biopsy specimens of the skin of the back of the forearm and hand in 20 patients with systemic scleroderma were studied using histological and electron microscopy methods. There were revealed evidences of intensified neofibrillogenesis, changes in collagen structures of the derma (destruction and defects of packing of collagenous fibrills, variability of their thickness in a fibre) and in the microcirculatory bed. In 18 out of 20 cases the nuclei of the connective-tissue cells and cells of the basal layer of the epidermis contained the so-called nuclear bodies, which are considered by a number of authors as an indirect evidence of a viral infection. The process of an intensified neoformation of collagen fibrils considerably predominated over destructive processes in collagen structures.