Pleural Effusion Complicating Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid pleural effusion with "R.A. cells" in the pleural fluid.

“…COMMENT Pleural effusions occurring with or without parenchymatous lung disease are recognized as one systemic manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (Rubin, 1955 ;Emerson, 1956;Horler and Thompson, 1959;Carr and Mayne, 1961). They occur much more frequently in males, usually middle-aged with recent or developing joint symptoms.…”

Complicated rheumatoid disease.

“…Pleural effusions have been reported as part of the rheumatoid disease process (Emerson, 1956 ;Horler and Thompson, 1959).…”

Diffuse Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis in Patients with a Positive Sheep Cell Agglutination Test

“…Honeycomb lung (sic) has also been found in rheumatoid patients (Hart and Mackenzie, 1955;Dixon and Ball, 1957;Brinkman and Chaikof, 1959). Other pulmonary disorders occur in rheumatoid disease: these include pleural effusions (Emerson, 1956;Mason and Steinberg, 1958;Horler and Thompson, 1959;Ward, 1961), rheumatoid nodules in the pleura or lung parenchyma (Christie, 1954;Gresham and Kellaway, 1958), Caplan's syndrome (Caplan, 1953), and a pulmonary arteritis (Price and Skelton, 1956;Gardner, Duthie, Macleod, and Allen, 1957). Of considerable interest is the occurrence of certain of these pulmonary disorders before the onset of the arthritis; this has been described in pleural effusions (Horler and Thompson, 1959) and in Caplan's syndrome where the development of pulmonary nodules has been known to antedate the onset of arthritis by up to 10 years (Caplan, 1959).…”