THE ANTISTREPTOLYSIN TITER IN RHEUMATIC FEVER, ARTHRITIS AND OTHER DISEASES

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The authors determined the antistreptolysin titer of the serum of normal subjects and of patients with scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, chorea, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gonococcal, tuberculous, hemolytic streptococcal, meningo-coccal, and unclassified types of arthritis, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, erythema nodosum, pericarditis, lupus ery-thematosus, and periarteritis nodosa. In all, 1,539 titrations were made on the sera of 817 patients. The normal maximum titer was 100 units per cc. 80% of the patients with scarlet fever showed a rise in the antistreptolysin titer during the course of the disease. The majority of patients with rheumatic fever and chorea showed an abnormally high titer. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis and with other types of arthritis, as a rule, showed no abnormal titer. Since an elevated antistreptolysin titer signifies that the patient is reacting immunologically to a hemolytic streptococcal infection, these results support the view that an important relationship exists between rheumatic fever and hemolytic streptococcal infection. Because of the patients with rheumatic polyarthritis showed an abnormally high titer and those with other forms of arthritis did not, this test was found to be a useful diagnostic aid. No relationship was established between the degree of titer elevation and the severity of the illness or the prognosis.

This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit: