[Value of laboratory diagnosis in inflammatory rheumatologic diseases]

Laboratory investigations play an important part in the diagnostic procedures of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Besides the classical humoral inflammatory parameters (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, protein electrophoresis), hematology, blood chemistry, infectious serology and synovial fluid analysis we want to focus in this review on the more detailed diagnostic by autoantibody testing as well as by specific molecularbiological procedures (PCR technique).