[Adult-onset Still's disease. Report of 5 cases]

The authors report 5 cases of Still's disease in adults whose symptoms were mainly characterised by high fever, transient exanthema, polyarthralgia and/or polyarthritis, lymphoadenomegaly, splenomegaly and neutrophil leukocytosis. Assays for leukocytosis were positive, as were those for inflammatory markers and serum ferritin was also high in all 3 patients in which it assayed. On the contrary, serum ferritin latex test, Waaler-Rose reaction and all other tests commonly used to diagnose long-term fevers were all negative. All the subjects examined recovered after prolonged steroid therapy. Only one patient reported severe sequelae in the hip joints and subsequently underwent bilateral hip replacement surgery.