The diagnostic treasures of synovial fluid

Abstract

Diagnosis of a rheumatic disease depends on a group of nonspecific signs and symptoms. Many of the individual criteria for the rheumatic illnesses overlap and may complicate the differential diagnosis. For instance, the American Rheumatism Association guide for rheumatoid arthritis, one of the best understood and most common diseases, has 1 1 diagnostic criteria. Not one of these (even a rheumatoid factor) is diagnostic in itself.