Reflection of local inflammatory activity in rheumatic diseases in synovial imprint cytology

Cytological signs of the synovial imprint preparation have been correlated with findings of systemic, histomorphologic and arthroscopic inflammatory symptoms in 123 patients with rheumatic arthropathies. Out of the observed cellular and non-cellular structures of the synovial imprint cytology, fibrin, fibrinous necroses and relations of neutrophil polymorphs, as well as synovial phagocytes, reflect the acute inflammatory activity of the joint examined. The content in synovial imprint preparation of cells and cell groups are manners of expression both of the acute and proliferative activity as well as basic activity, respectively, of the synovial membrane. The synovial imprint cytogram's number of giant cells correlates with the histomorphologic degree of severity of the local proliferative inflammatory activity. Correlations between the level of the 1-h-value of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and the imprintocytological finding cellular distribution density, as well as relations between synoviocytes and neutrophil polymorphs, had to be demonstrated statistically. No correlations, however, were found between cytologic structures of inflammatory activities of the synovial imprint cytogram and the differential cell picture of the associated serosynovitis.