Diagnosis of rheumatic fever and like conditions; evaluation of certain of the acute phase reactants in a single specimen of blood.

CERTAIN OF THE ACUTE PHASE REACTANT TESTS WERE PERFORMED ON THE SAME SPECIMEN OF BLOOD FROM PERSONS WITH THE FOLLOWING STATES: Normal, acute respiratory disease, streptococcosis, acute rheumatic fever, acute glomerulonephritis, acute rheumatoid arthritis, inactive rheumatic fever, lupus erythematosus, malignant disease, obesity, asthma, and allergic rhinitis. Of the tests performed, the mucoprotein-tyrosine and the antistreptolysin-0 titer when done together appeared to be the most discriminating. It is suggested that the performance of such tests on the same sample of blood might aid in differentiating mild acute rheumatic fever and acute rheumatoid arthritis from each other and also from other disease states.