Immunological Aspects of Rheumatology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Lymphocyte Subpopulations and their Role in the Rheumatic Diseases

   • N. D. Hall, P. A. Bacon

   Pages 1-27

3. Lymphocyte Traffic through Chronic Inflammatory Lesions: Relevance to Rheumatic Disease

   • J. B. Hay, T. B. Issekutz, W. G. Chin

   Pages 29-39

4. Autoantibodies in the Rheumatic Diseases

   • I. D. Griffiths

   Pages 41-62

5. Antigen-Antibody Complexes: Their Nature and Role in Animal Models of Antigen-Antibody Complex Disease

   • M. W. Steward, M. E. Devey

   Pages 63-91

6. Complement

   • K. Whaley, A. El-Ghobarey

   Pages 93-121

7. Immunogenetics and Rheumatology

   • D. F. Roberts, J. Wentzel

   Pages 123-148

8. Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes (PMN)—Origins, Functions and Roles in the Rheumatic Diseases

   • G. B. Howe, J. N. Fordham

   Pages 149-170

9. Eosinophils and the Connective Tissue Diseases

   • P. Davis

   Pages 171-182

10. The Macrophage—Origins, Functions and Role in the Rheumatic Diseases

    • N. Hurst, G. Nuki

    Pages 183-209

11. The Relationship between Epstein-Barr Virus and the Inflammatory Arthropathies

    • A. G. Bird

    Pages 211-219

12. Virus-Host Interactions and the Connective Tissue Diseases

    • A. M. Denman

    Pages 221-252

13. Back Matter

    Pages 253-262

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This is an exciting era in medicine and in science. Successive waves of advance in knowledge gather, break and recede uncovering fresh challenges and new opportunities. Each plays its part in eroding the tidemark of yesterday's ignorance. Many involved in the day-to-day management of patients, ill­ prepared and ill-equipped by the training which they received as under­ graduate students, find it difficult to retain contact with the advances in medical science and feel uncomfortable on the shifting sands of uncertainty upon which we now stand. Which of the new ideas is sound ? Upon which data may we rely? How may we distinguish the real from the unreal, the true from the false, recent advances from recent retreats? These are the anxieties, often either unstated or alternatively expressed in terms of an attitude of total opposition to 'all of this research rubbish' which are widespread in medical circles today. It is for these individuals who are not themselves directly involved in the immunology of rheumatic diseases but who, nevertheless, recognize the importance of this subject to their patients and, in particular, to tomorrow's patients, that this book has been written. There are two points that I believe to be of central concern. Firstly, I think it important to recognize that the intellectual basis of most of the research work being generated today is actually extremely simple.

• rheumatology

• University Department of Rheumatology, The Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

  W. Carson Dick

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