[Disease-modifying factors in chronic polyarthritis. Correlations amongsystemic vasculitis, secondary amyloidosis, septic infections and occurrence of miliary epitheloid-cell granuloma. A review of autopsies].

The following findings were obtained from autopsies performed on 169 deceased with chronic polyarthritis (CP): systemic vasculitis in 26 cases (15.4%), systemic secondary amyloidosis in 32 cases (18.9%), sepsis in 13 cases (7.7%) and miliary epithelioid-cell granulomatosis (probably tuberculosis) in six cases (3.6%). Vasculitis was combined with amyloidosis in five patients, with sepsis in two and with miliary epithelioid-cell granulomatosis in four. Critical random check, using the Mann-Whitney test, did not support significance of relationship between vasculitis and amyloidosis or fatal sepsis, whereas significant correlations were found to exist in CP cases between vasculitis and miliary epithelioid-cell granulomatosis (P < 0.005). The latter had no effect on the severity of vasculitis, but the incidence of the granulomatous type of vasculitis was higher with significance (P < 0.02). The conclusion is that biopsy evidence of granulomatous vasculitis in CP patients should be followed by systematic clinical search for miliary tuberculosis because of above-average incidence of that combination.