Early rheumatoid arthritis in the USSR and in Finland

In 1974-76 patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (duration less than or equal to 6 months) were investigated at the Institute for Rheumatism, Moscow, and at the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital, Heinola, Finland. Of 200 patients in each centre, 142 sex- and age-matched patients were chosen and followed up for one year. Despite common selection criteria, appreciable differences were found in clinical involvement, X-ray findings and laboratory results. Many of these may be due to difficulties in the standardization of methods rather than to actual national differences in the clinical picture and course of the disease. In both institutions, almost every patient was given systemic antirheumatic drugs, but there were notable differences in the choice of drugs: gold was preferred at Heinola, chloroquine or cytostatics were more commonly used in Moscow. The use of both local and peroral corticosteroids was similar, while surgery was used only in Heinola and spa treatment only in Moscow.