Investigations of the cerebrospinal fluid in cases of rheumatoid arthritis

The spinal fluid was examined in 141 cases of rheumatoid arthritis, thirty-eight men and 103 women, of whom fifty-eight (41 per cent) exhibited a protein content that was pathological in one way or other, fifteen (14 per cent) gave a pathological gold-sol reaction and seven showed an increased spinal fluid cell count. Altogether sixty-six cases (46.8 per cent) were found to have spinal fluids which were pathologically altered in some way.Statistical examination of the results shows, inter alia, that in cases of rheumatoid arthritis the average spinal fluid globulin value is increased and the average spinal fluid albumin value lowered, resulting in a raised average globulin-albumin quotient. Further, it was shown that the abnormal increases in spinal fluid protein values are not dependent on the degree of severity of the arthritic disease process and are little affected by the duration of the disease.The frequency of increased cell counts in the spinal fluid appears to be somewhat greater in cases with elevated protein contents.