The Liver in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Liver disease in rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogren's syndrome. Prospective study using biochemical and serological markers of hepatic dysfunction.

“…This is in agreement with most other studies (Lefkovits and Farrow, 1955;Darby, 1956;Nettelbladt, 1962;Schiifer, 1962;Castensfors and others, 1964;Sievers and others, 1964;Langness and Muller, 1965;Langness, 1969;Forgacs and others, 1971;Rau and Kuhn, 1972;Kierat, 1973), many of which noted a correlation with parameters reflecting activity and severity of RA and disease duration. Improvement in abnormal liver function tests in patients with RA has also been noted with remission (Todd, 1935) and after corticosteroid therapy (Kalbak, 1951;Pettersson, Wegelius, and Skrifvars, 1970;Kierat, 1973).…”

“…Apart from amyloidosis, and occasional cases of cirrhosis, which have proved difficult to classify (Lovgren, 1953;Schafer, 1962;Blendis, Ansell, Jones, Hamilton, and Williams, 1970;Losada, Prat, and Fernandez, 1972), these studies have revealed only minor changes including variable fatty change, some Kupffer cell hyperplasia, and mild mononuclear cell infiltration of the portal tracts (Lovgren, 1953;Movitt and Davis, 1953;Lefkovits and Farrow, 1955;Schafer, 1962;Taubner, 1963;Langness and Muller, 1965;Kokot and others, 1967;Langness, 1969;Forgacs and others, 1971; Rau and Kuhn, 1972). These changes were present in between 10 and 40 % of cases but showed no correlation with abnormal liver function tests and were generally considered 'nonsignificant' as they were not characteristic of any specific pathological process.…”

Liver in Felty's Syndrome

“…Lefkovits and Farrow (1955), however, found that the abnormality of liver function tests was related to the severity of the rheumatoid disease and that most changes could be explained by the alteration in the plasma globulins. Nevertheless, 2 of their 15 patients had abnormal liver histology on biopsy material, with periportal fibrosis and chronic inflammatory cell infiltration.…”

Rheumatoid arthritis: extra-articular manifestations. II.

“…One patient later was found to have a macronodular cirrhosis, and in others a nodular appearance without true cirrhosis was seen. In uncomplicated rheumatoid arthritis, however, such changes are rare, Lefkovits and Farrow (1955) finding only 2 of their 15 patients with histological changes and Movitt and Davis (1953) only slight to moderate fatty infiltration in 4 out of 17 rheumatoids examined by liver biopsy.…”