Mycoplasmas and bacteria in synovial fluid from patients with arthritis

Abstract

Synovial fluids from 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), eight with juvenile RA, and 64 with nonrheumatoid arthritis were cultured for mycoplasmas, bacteria, and L phase variants of bacteria. M. fermentans was isolated from joint effusions from three of the patients with RA and from two of the patients with nonrheumatoid arthritis, and M. hominis from a further effusion from a patient with RA. In all instances growth was obtained by direct inoculation into mycoplasma media. Prolonged incubation of the cultures, anerobic cultures, and centrifugation of the specimens in sucrose density gradients before culture did not increase the recovery rate. Mycoplasmas wer not found more often in the urogenital tract of the RA patients than in that of healthy controls. IHA and MI antibodies to M. fermentans were detectable in only a few of the RA patients and there was no significant difference in the prevalence of such antibodies between the patients with RA and the healthy controls. C. hofmanii was isolated on a medium for L phase variants from the synovial fluid of three of the patients with RA and eleven of those with nonrheumatoid arthritis.