Objective. Myocardium and coronary arteries can occasionally be affected in patients with systemic necrotizing vasculitides; however, such involvement has not been systematically assessed using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Objective. To compare the clinical, radiologic, and serologic expression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2 different populations.Methods. Standard protocols and assessment criteria were used in this study of 108 Greek and 107 British patients with RA.Results. British patients had more severe articular involvement than did Greeks, as judged by the duration of morning stiffness (P C O.OOS), grip strength (P < O.OOOl), and the numbers of swollen (P C 0.001) and tender (P C 0.0001) joints. The British RA patients also had more severe joint damage on radiologic examination, as evidenced by Steinbrocker stage I11 (P C 0.005) and IV (P C 0.025) disease and had more extraarticular manifestations (P < 0.0001), including rheumatoid nodules (P C 0.0001) and Raynaud's phe-

Renal tubular acidosis (RTA) is a frequent extraglandular manifestation of Sjögren's syndrome; however, no distinction on the incidence of this renal tubular defect between primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome has been reported. This study was undertaken in order to define the frequency of RTA and the possible pathogenetic mechanisms in a group of 21 randomly selected primary Sjögren's syndrome patients. RTA was found in 7 (33%) patients. The incomplete type of the disorder was the most frequent. It seems that the etiology of RTA is multifactorial. Renal excretion of monoclonal proteins and the immunologically-induced interstitial inflammation are the main possible factors of this renal tubular defect.

Objectives-Previous reports have shown that HLA