Oral heparin in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Heparin was administered orally in 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The treatment resulted in clinical improvement in all cases (significant reduction in the number of tender and swollen joints and morning stiffness). This was associated with a decrease in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (8/10 patients) and cholesterol in all patients, although the differences were not significant.

Disturbances of T-cell interactions with endothelium and the extracellular matrix proteins in a patient with Takayasu arteritis.

T-cell interactions with endothelium and the extracellular matrix proteins were studied in vitro in a patient with Takayasu arteritis. Markedly enhanced spontaneous adhesiveness to cultured endothelium and collagen IV and fibronectin were found to be paralleled by abolished responses to the costimulating action of collagens I and IV and fibronectin. Those abnormalities were partly corrected by immunosuppressive therapy.

The activity of polymorphonuclear leukocyte neutral proteinases and their inhibitors in patients with psoriasis treated with a continuous peritoneal dialysis.

3 of 16 patients with extensive psoriasis have been completely cleared of skin lesions within 2-3 weeks of continuous peritoneal dialysis, and 2 of them up to 2 mo after termination of therapy. In 5 cases there was a great improvement of psoriatic lesions and in 6 remaining cases only a slight improvement was found. The remission of psoriasis was correlated with extremely high polymorphonuclear leukocyte depletion through the peritoneal cavity in a short time.