Abstract
Rheumatism is a leading one of collagen diseases, causes diffuse damages in the connective tissue, and is often complicated with cardiac diseases.
Biopsy was applied to knee-joints affected with rheumatic diseases, i. e. rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart diseases and rehumatoid arthritis, 50 cases in all.
The tissues of knee-joints were studied with optical microscope, in particular, with electron microscope, in many stadia of rheumatism diagnosed by serum reaction which determines its rheumatic activity.
By these experiments, (1) various abnormalities were found in synovial membrane and blood vessels in parallel with many stadia in rheumatic activity. (2) Vascular change of peculia_??_ irreversibility was shown in the final stage of rheumatism. (3) The pathological findings of collagen fiber were found in the connective tissue. (4) The relationships between the findings of electron microscopy and those of optical microscopy are of much innterest in the study of rheumatism.
