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Incidence of "rheumatoid factors" in aged serum.

1967; BMJ; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/ard.26.1.47

1468-2060

J. J. de Blécourt, F. Westendorp Boerma, Erica Ottilie Vorenkamp,

Osteoarthritis Treatment and Mechanisms

Heimer, Levin, and Rudd (1963) found a positive latex-fixation test in 42 per cent.and a positive sensitized sheep cell test in 2 per cent. of 121 persons aged 65 to 93 years in a home for the aged in New York City.Although these "rheumatoid factors" are some- times found in non-rheumatoid sera, those found in older people seem to be the same as those found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.In a control study of fifty healthy subjects under 65 years of age they found an incidence of 4 per cent.for the latex-fixation test and 2 per cent.with the sensitized sheep cell test.Their 121 aged subjects included no cases of liver disease, syphilis, leprosy, or bacterial endocarditis, and rheumatoid arthritis was also excluded.Nearly 50 per cent. of the positive latex-fixation titres (method of Singer and Plotz, 1956) were 1: 640 or above.Heimer and others (1963) could not explain the increased incidence of rheumatoid-like serum factors among the aged, but suggested that a piling-up of auto-antibodies or a decreased production of certain serum components might be responsible, and gave a warning against reliance on serological tests in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in elderly persons.Litwin and Singer (1965) found an incidence of 30 per cent. of anti-gamma globulin factor in the sera of ninety persons over 70 years of age irrespective of the presence or absence of chronic illness.Kissick (1961) mentioned an incidence of seropositivity rising from 4 -7 per 1,000 in the 15 to 24- year age group to 42 2 per 1,000 in those over 65.Blumberg, Block, Black, and Dotter (1961), in a survey of the healthy Eskimo population in Alaska, found an increasing number of positive Bentonite flocculation tests with age.Jacqueline, Podliachouk, and Eyquem (1965) studied 248 persons over 70 years of age and 270 persons under 70 years of age by the modified Waaler-Rose test, the latex-fixation test, and a