[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.

[Clinical x-ray and scintigraphic evaluation of the state of the sacroiliac joints in patients with chronic monarthritis]. / Kliniko-rentgenologicheskaia i stsintigraficheskaia otsenka sostoianiia kresttsovo-podvzdoshnykh sochlenenii u bol'nykh s khronicheskimi monartritami.

The paper is concerned with some comparative data on the frequency of the detection of sacroileitis using clinicoroentgenological and scintigraphic studies in 57 patients with chronic monarthritis of the knee joint of different genesis. On clinical examination 14 patients (24.7%) only had indirect signs of the affected sacroiliac joints, in 30 patients (52.6%) sacroileitis was diagnosed by x-ray. Scintigraphy with 99mTc-pyrophosphate proved to be most effective for the detection of early signs of sacroileitis because lesions in the sacroiliac joints were found in 35 patients (61.4%).

[Role of arthroscopy in the diagnosis of chronic monoarthritis of the knee joint]. / Rol' artroskopii v diagnostike khronicheskikh monoartritov kolennogo sustava.

The author analyzes the arthroscopy findings of 70 knee joints in 68 patients (35 men and 33 women) suffering from chronic monoarthritis of the knee joints with a disease standing from 3 months to 12 years. According to the x-ray data the overwhelming majority of the joints (54) showed stage 0-1, 15 stage II and 1 stage III of the pathological process. In accordance with the preliminary diagnoses 32 patients had synovitis of unclear genesis, 4 rheumatoid arthritis, 3 gonarthrosis deformans, 2 psoriatic arthritis, 5 patients were afflicted with Bechterew's disease, 1 with chondromatosis, and in 21 patients the diagnosis was doubtful. Arthroscopy promoted considerable improvement of the diagnosis, since rheumatoid arthritis including juvenile one was recognized in 12 patients, psoriatic arthritis in 8, reactive synovitis due to gonarthrosis in 16, Bechterew's disease in 12, Reiter's disease in 2, chondromatosis in 4, and pigmented villous-nodular synovitis in 3. The arthroscopic appearance of the disease remained unclear in 7 patients. Therefore, arthroscopy proved a highly effectual method that permits one to differentiate between reactive synovitis and genuine inflammatory diseases and to differentiate with a great probability between rheumatoid synovitis, psoriatic arthropathy and Bechterew's disease.