The revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were formulated from a computerized analysis of 262 contemporary, consecutively studied patients with RA and 262 control subjects with From the Rheumatoid Arthritis Criteria Subcommittee of the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Criteria Committee of the American Rheumatism Association.

A study was conducted to develop criteria for clinical remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Data were provided by 35 rheumatologists on 175 RA patients considered to be in complete remission (with or without antirheumatic therapy) and 169 RA patients in partial remission or with active disease. Six criteria yielded optimal discrimination: morning stiffness absent or not exceeding 15 minutes, no fatigue, no joint pain by history, no joint tenderness, no joint or tendon sheath swelling, and no elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate. In this study sample, the presence of five or more of these criteria in an individual patient yielded 72% sensitivity for clinical remission and 100% specificity in discriminating RA patients with active disease. In a population sample, it is estimated that the overall accuracy of these criteria would be more than 90% in RA patients.

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The term Frozen Shoulder (FS) is a medical colloquialism rather than a diagnosis. It is usually used as a clinical description with pathogenetic inferences, as suggested by the alternative designations of periarthritis, pericapsulitis, adhesive capsulitis and obliterative bursitis. Our understanding of the basic pathology and natural history of FS is limited, and this is reflected in the wide assortment of treatments which have been advocated. In this review the present state of knowledge of this disorder will be presented in a critical fashion.

We have studied the epidemiologv of giant cell arteritis (GCA) m an urban population in south central United States. The incidence of GCA in Shelby County, Tennessee for the years 1971 through 1980 was determined for the total population and for age-, sex-, and race-specific groups. Over this period 26 cases were identified. The average annual incidence was 0.35/100,000. This was increased to 1.58/100,000 for those over the age of 50. The incidence was 7 times greater in whites than in blacks and 7 times greater in females than in males. Clinical and laboratory features of the patients were reviewed and found to be similar to those in other populations. GCA is considerably less frequent in Shelby County, Tennessee than in other areas where similar epidemiologic studies have been performed. This difference can be accounted for only in part by racial distributions. Similar studies in southern geographic areas are needed to place our findings in perspective and point to specific factors which may have etiologic significance in GCA.From the Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences (UTCHS), Memphis.