[Studies on clinical remission of rheumatoid arthritis]

Clinical remission was observed in 19 out of 276 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Remission rate was higher in male patients. In order to determine the clinical characteristics of remission cases, comparative study was performed. Although the time between initiation of treatment and clinical remission varied from case to case, the remission was related to early diagnosis and use of immunomodulating drug. No exacerbation was observed in our 19 patients with remission for the periods of 17 observation months. However, serial X-ray examination of hands disclosed that the erosive changes developed even after clinical remission.