Comparison of pain properties in fibromyalgia patients and rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Pain properties of 50 fibromyalgia patients were examined and compared with pain properties of 50 rheumatoid arthritis patients. In both fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, pain was bilateral, involved multiple sites, and was of equal intensity (60.8 versus 58.

Therapeutic plasmapheresis in systemic lupus erythematosus. Effect on immune complexes and antibodies to DNA.

The effect of plasmapheresis in 8 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was investigated. Drug treatment was maintained at a constant level for at least 4 weeks before plasmapheresis. Levels of immune complexes were measured by a Raji cell radioimmunoassay, and by a solid-phase C1q-binding assay.