[New strategies in diagnosis and therapy of vasculitides].

Vasculitides are a heterogeneous group of diseases, with an incidence of 38-54 cases per 1 million people. These diseases are characterized by an inflammatory infiltration of the vessel wall. The clinical diagnosis is difficult to establish because of the lack of diagnostic criteria, despite the fact, that such criteria are increasingly being developed.

[Effectiveness and safety of radium chloride in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. Results of an observational study].

After radium chloride was approved for the therapy of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Germany on October 23, 2000, an open, non-comparative prospective observational study was planed. The assessment involved 308 patients with the diagnosis of AS and radiological evidence of spinal involvement who were treated with at least one injection of radium chloride. 278 of these patients received the full cycle of 10 injections (a total of 10 MBq radium-224) one injection one per week for a period of 10 successive weeks.

[Retroperitoneal fibrosis and arthritis--a manifestation of the same illness].

Retroperitoneal fibrosis is a disorder in which the retroperitoneal fat is the site of a subacute and chronic inflammatory reaction and is subsequently replaced by dense fibrotic tissue. Rheumatoid nodules are chronic granulomata occurring at sites of pressure and movement, both near the body surface and internally. A 55-year-old sales-manager was admitted to radiation synovectomy after a 5 year history of excessive right and left knee effusions.

[Anti-Jo-1 antibodies: specific autoantibodies for polymyositis with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. 2 case reports].

Anti-Jo-1 antibodies are rare autoantibodies, which bind and inhibit the activity of histidyl-tRNA-synthetase. They are predominantly found in a genetically and clinically distinct subset of myositis patients, presenting with interstitial alveolitis. We describe the case of a 22-year-old woman with Jo-1-syndrome with typical features of myositis, pulmonary fibrosis, nonerosive symmetric polyarthritis, Gottron's papules at the metacarpophalangeal joints and classic heliotrope discoloration of the periorbital area with edema.