Compendium Takes Rheumatology to Extremes

December 9, 2014

A medical web site devoted to extremes in medicine seeks record-setting rheumatology cases.

Smilack JD. Medical Extremes (A Compendium of Medical Records) Is Now Online. The American Journal of Medicine 2014;127(12): e41, December 2014 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2014.09.005

Inspired by the Guinness Book of World Records, the author and his colleagues published a short book of extreme measurements in medicine several years ago.

They've now turned the book into a free access web site, and are soliciting new entries for it.

The rheumatology-related entries to date are:

Highest serum DNA titer	1:2,560
Highest serum anti-mitochondrial antibody titer	1:640
Highest serum antinuclear antibody (ANA) titer	1:81,920
Highest serum anti-streptolysin O (ASO) titer	1:4,800
Highest serum rheumatoid factor titer	1:10,240
Lowest serum complement C3[1]	8 mg/dL
Lowest serum complement C4	2.6 mg/dL
Largest tophus	7 cm x 6.3 cm x 3.3 cm; 72 gm