Abstract
To clarify the relationship between glucose levels in synovial fluid and blood, we measured the glucose levels of both in 84 joints of 74 patients. To further observe any changes with the passage of time, we compared the synovial glucose with the blood glucose before meals and one hour, 2 hours and 3 hours after them.
The results were:
(1) In 92% of osteoarthritis and 68% of rheumatoid arthritis, the synovial glucose levels were higher than the blood glucose levels.
(2) In all acute pyogenic arthritis and 83.3 % of chronic pyogenic arthritis, the synovial glucose levels were lower than the blood glucose levels.
(3) The synovial glucose levels were always higher than the blood glucose levels after meals (n=5) .
