The "Early, Curable Stage" of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

should be made of each necessary diagnostic procedure.A full description of our experience with monoarticular arthritis in children has recently been published, which a more specialized audience may perhaps find useful.'Finally, as Professor Illingworth well knows, some large-scale well-controlled studies have shown that cortisone,2 prednisone either in moderate dosage,3 or in larger dosage,4 or in more prolonged dosage,5 shows no superiority to acetylsalicylic acid in prevent- ing residual rheumatic heart disease.Others have claimed that it does, and there are con- trolled trials to support this view.Our own view at Taplow on the basis of various con- trolled trials and with experience of over 1,500 cases of rheumatic fever is as expressed in my article, that prednisone does not pre- vent the development of rheumatic heart disease but may be better than salicylate in preventing failure in cases of moderate or severe carditis.-Iam, etc.,