[The semiquantitative characteristics of the ultrastructural changes in the vessels of the microcirculatory bed of the synovial membrane in different clinical variants of rheumatoid arthritis].

Electron microscopy was used to make semiquantitative evaluation of lesions in the microvessels of the synovial membrane in patients with rheumatoid synovitis of different duration, different activity of the disease, joint and systemic form of rheumatoid arthritis, in seronegative and seropositive tests of rheumatoid patients. The synovial biopsy from patients with posttraumatic arthropathy without any clinical and morphological manifestations of synovitis served as control. Frequency of different ultrastructural changes in the vessel wall was statistically evaluated. Significant differences in the submicroscopic picture of microcirculatory lesions in immediate and late rheumatoid synovitis were discovered. Frequency and depth of destructive changes in the vessel wall persisted in the increased activity and appearance of systemic manifestations of the disease.