Objective methods to assess the anti-inflammatory activity of antirheumatic compounds

A review is to be made of the methods currently being used in the assessment of anti-inflammatory compounds in man. Many of the current methods suffer from the disadvantage of being subjective or depend on various outside factors. We will review methods such as arthroscopy, histopathology, electron microscopy, joint scintigraphy and enzyme determinations in synovial fluid. Arthroscopy will be described in detail and its application to the course of the disease and the effect of anti-inflammatory drugs. Joint scintigraphy using radioactive technetium and indium will be described, which we find easy and reproducible. Current work using such parameters as skin temperature and enzyme content of synovial fluid will be described.