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The appearances of the nailfold capillaries can be used to distinguish between various connective tissue diseases. In a study of 30 patients (10 with scleroderma, nine with systemic lupus erythematosus, and 11 with rheumatoid arthritis), photographs were taken of the eight nailfolds of each patient (thumbs excluded) and then coded. Each of the photographs was later analysed by a rheumatology registrar and an attempt was made to predict the patient's diagnosis using only the appearance of the nailfold. The diagnostic specificity and sensitivity were 89% and 80%, respectively. The results indicate that nailfold capillaroscopy, performed by a relatively inexperienced observer, can accurately distinguish between patients with scleroderma and those with systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.

Although features of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) have been well described in British, American, and to a lesser extent Australian communities we can find no previous study of the clinical characteristics of this disease in a New Zealand population or indeed in any population containing Polynesians. In a follow-up study of 55 Auckland residents with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, current information was obtained for 78% of the study group with a mean interval from disease onset to follow up of 9.3 years. The outcome for the group as a whole was excellent although patients with a polyarticular course, regardless of onset subtype, had a poorer outcome with respect to both ongoing disease activity and functional disability. Polynesian patients were represented in all onset subtypes in proportion to their frequency in the general community and there was no recognisable influence of race on the course of the disease. Despite careful ophthalmological examination only one case of mild uveitis was detected, a much lower incidence than in British and American reports.

The clinical records of all patients with scleroderma or Raynaud's phenomenon who attended hospitals or specialist practice in Auckland during the ten year period of 1970--79 were examined. Forty-seven patients were found to satisfy the American Rheumatism Association criteria for progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS). Thirteen of these patients had CRST features which comprise calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, sclerodactyly and telangiectasiae. All but two of the 23 surviving patients were interviewed. The incidence of PSS was 6.3/million/year and no significant difference in incidence was found between Caucasians and Polynesians. Raynaud's phenomenon was most frequently the presenting symptom. Oesophageal involvement was the commonest clinical visceral manifestation. Cumulative survival rates showed that the adverse prognostic features were renal, cardiac and to a lesser extent pulmonary involvement. Patients with the CRST features had a better prognosis and none had renal complications. The natural history of the CRST group was characterised by a long latency between the presenting symptom and the other features of the disease. Therefore, the recognition of the CRST variant was of retrospective rather than predictive clinical value. In this first clinical study of PSS patients in New Zealand, results of therapeutic intervention were disappointing.

To assess the chronicity of symptoms and long term prospects for employment in patients with Reiter's syndrome, a follow-up study of 111 patients was performed. Ninety-eight patients were available for follow-up; these had a mean disease duration of 7.9 years (range two months to 39 years). At follow-up, 55 patients had symptomatic joints and 26 objective evidence of synovitis, but only seven had chronic joint deformity. Seven patients fulfilled criteria for ankylosing spondylitis. Ninety-three patients were in functional class I or II, 86 patients were working, 26 had changed employment, and 11 were unemployed because of the disease. No prognostic features of value were identified. The tissue antigen HLA B27 was associated significantly with anterior uveitis and radiological sacroiliitis.