title: [Scientific bases of medical examinations of patients with rheumatic diseases].
abstract: The 40-year experience of the Institute of Rheumatology has shown that follow-up in rheumatic diseases is the necessary method of management of patients with rheumatic diseases since it is the method that makes it possible to control the progression of disease and provide long-term safe treatment with glucocorticoids, cytotoxics, and other antirheumatic drugs which are now widely used in rheumatological care. Medical examination mainly made in rheumatism caused a substantial reduction in the number of relapses. Since the 1960s, intensive and scientifically grounded studies in medical examinations for other rheumatic diseases have promoted more prolonged longevity and better working fitness in the vast majority of patients. Thus, a long-term follow-up of over 600 patients with exanthematous lupus erythematosus made it possible to detail its clinical picture and to develop the therapeutical programmes that control the progression of the disease in 93% of the patients who had been incurable before. In rheumatoid arthritis, the follow-up of large groups of patients by using the computer database has enabled the researchers to develop a mathematically accurate method for prediction of the progression of disease by employing the integral parameter--the index of severity, as well as to reveal a number of important regularities of treatment. A follow-up of patients with reactive arthritis, Bekhterev's disease, systemic scleroderma, and other rheumatic diseases is shown to be of great importance.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ivanova
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012219:Rheumatology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends