Characteristics of the protease activity in synovial fluid from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Abstract

Activation of the coagulation system was more marked in RA than in OA, strongly suggesting that in RA there is an imbalance between thrombin and its inhibitors, and that thrombin is more closely linked to the pathogenesis of RA than to that of OA. Our results also show that analysis of the synovial fluid may be useful to estimate the activation of the coagulation system in RA, but not that of the fibrinolytic system.