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Felty's Syndrome: Radio-active Isotope Studies and Splenectomy

1965; BMJ; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/ard.24.1.46

1468-2060

F B Gibberd, C. Gilbertson, E. Jepson,

Amoebic Infections and Treatments

Felty (1924) described five patients with chronic arthritis, splenomegaly, leucopenia, and pigmentation.Since then the association between rheumatoid arthritis, splenomegaly, and leucopenia has been referred to as Felty's syndrome, although it is generally believed that it is not a separate disease entity (Curtis and Pollard, 1940; Short, Bauer, and Reynolds, 1957).The aetiology of the leucopenia in Felty's syndrome is unknown.Originally it was considered that chronic sepsis was the cause (Singer and Levy, 1936), but it is now thought that hypersplenism is the chief factor.Hutchison and Alexander (1954) postulated that a splenic factor inhibited the normal production of white cells in the bone marrow of patients with Felty's syndrome.Hirschboeck (1946) suggested that the white cells might also be removed from the circulation by the spleen.He measured the white cells in the splenic artery and vein in a patient undergoing splenectomy for Felty's syndrome and the results showed removal of the cells by the spleen, but Hutchison and Alexander (1954) were unable to confirm this.