PATHOLOGICAL SYSTEM CONCEPT OF RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease of the mesodermal germ layer. It is based on two totally different patho‐mechanisms; a) an exudative‐inflammatory process, and b) a primary necrosis of various mesodermal tissues. The exudative‐inflammatory processes take place in the mesodermal spaces; the primary necrotizing processes occur in the interior of various mesodermal tissues. Whereas the lining cell tissue inflammation is non‐characteristic, and the necrosis in rheumatoid arthritis can be taken as specific. The presence of the rheumatoid factor is optional in the lining cell tissue inflammatory processes; it is obligatory in necrosis. Consequently, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease of the mesodermal germ layer which can occur at two levels. On the first level, the process takes place at the border of mesodermal spaces. On the second level, in which the rheumatic factor is obligatory, the process becomes more complicated, since various kinds of mesodermal tissue structures, including heart muscle and vascular walls, die initially. The clinical picture of rheumatoid arthritis is thereafter characterized by the visceral processes.