Faculty Bibliography

The diagnosis of gout and pseudogout has traditionally been established by the identification, in synovial fluid, of monosodium urate and calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystals with compensated polarizing light microscopy. In this paper the utility of electron microscopy in establishing these diagnosis in two cases, when the conventional means of synovial fluid analysis had failed to do so, is discussed. The application of ultrastructural analysis of synovial fluid increases diagnostic capability in the crystal deposition diseases, and it is recommended for those patients in whom the more usual studies have not established a diagnosis

In order to determine if the ESR correlated with concentrations in plasma of fibrinogen, alpha-1, alpha-2, beta, and gamma globulins, a prospective study of 61 hospitalized patients was undertaken. The correlation coefficient between the ESR and fibrinogen (r=0.4320), alpha-1 globulins 0=0.3763), alpha-2 globulins (r=0.5874), beta globulins (r=0.2156) and gamma globulins (r=0.2169) were determined. The multiple coefficient of correlation was 0.750, and the proportion of variance for all substances measures accounted for only 56% of the ESR. The data suggest that serum substances that were not measured in this study had a significant influence on the ESR.