[The role of circulating immune complexes in children with rheumatoid arthritis].

The content of circulating immune complexes (CIC) was determined in 120 children with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Of this number 24 children were included into the group with rheumatoid uveitis. For comparison a group of 33 children with arthritis of various genesis was examined. Determination of CIC showed that in RA children exhibited a high level of IC in the blood and the synovial fluid depending on the activity of the process, the presence of visceral manifestations and spread of the articular affection. Rheumatoid uveitis was not accompanied by any marked deviations in immunological indices as compared to an articular form of rheumatoid arthritis. An increased content of CIC in children with arthritis of various genesis allows one to consider that in rheumatoid arthritis its determination is of no diagnostic value though a considerable rise in their content is a prognostically unfavourable sign in this disease.