[Rheumatoid serology: insufficient using a single test]

The rheumatoid factor research restricted to only a test finds evident limitation not only in clinical field, but also on epidemiological investigations. The problem may find a solution by contemporary employment of a tests pool both in epidemiology and in the different physiopathological conditions present in rheumatology. Such kind of proposal has been verified on rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis classic or probable, polyarthritic syndrome, polyarthritis, spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis) and not rheumatic ones and in control group population (2901 subjects controlled). The results obtained emphasize the eventual presence of rheumatoid factor in the control group population, usually documented by the isolate positivity of three or more tests is preponderant for the same occurrence. By the statistical analysis applied to the conditions with equivalent number in the positive tests, is resulted that the possibility to discriminate the population, apparently health from the sick one is realized in a significative way of the positive tests, and starting from the positivity of two or more tests at least. It can be concluded confirming the already historical datum that the rheumatoid factor research with a test only has a limited orientation power to the diagnosis purpose.