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JAMA. 1970;214(3):583.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The variety of rheumatoid arthritis-like diseases in animals caused by microorganisms has encouraged the hope that human rheumatoid arthritis too may be associated with an infective agent. Recent studies in Great Britain suggest that Mycoplasma, an organism of wide distribution which has a growing reputation for causing pneumonia, may be that agent.

Several years ago Williams¹ reported the isolation of Mycoplasma fermentans in 31 of 79 specimens of synovial fluid from patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Only three of 37 control individuals without arthritis or with nonrheumatoid arthritides had the organism in their synovial fluid. Antibody to M fermentans was significantly more prevalent in the sera from patients with sero-positive rheumatoid arthritis than from those who were sero-negative or in the control group.

Williams and associates² have now extended the investigations. Because it was impossible to differentiate rheumatoid patients from controls by normal serological tests for Mycoplasma antibodies, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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