[Infections and immunosuppressive agents in rheumatology]

The authors review the problem of infection occurring in patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatism, e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus erythematosus, treated with cytolytic drugs for immunodepressive reasons. From their investigation, it seems that there is a high frequency of bacterial and mycotic and viral infections in these patients, but controlled investigations seem to show quite definitely that the frequency of these infections depends on the disease itself. The risk does not seem to be increased by cytolytic drugs. The only exception is herpes which appears in 10 to 20% of patients treated with immunosuppressive agents, as against 2% in a controll series. The other virus diseases did not have an abnormally high frequency. The conclusions are, of course, only of value for the types of treatment used in rheumatology.