Chronic arthritis with splenomegaly and leukopenia

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Abstract
Currently, the adult patient with chronic arthritis, leukopenia, and splenomegaly is classified as having a variant of rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus, or is regarded as having a distinct clinical entity known as Felty's syndrome. Twenty‐four such patients were studied with clinical, pathologic and laboratory features to substantiate our hypothesis that these persons have two diseases, one to explain the polyarthritis, and another to explain the hypersplenism. The features of rheumatoid arthritis were present in eighteen patients, while osteoarthritis occurred in five, and gout was found in one. Evaluation of the histopathologic changes in the spleens removed in treatment indicated that most patients had the fibrosis characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus, while the others had various splenic disorders such as Hodgkin's disease and leukemia.