reumatology

The use of specific antibodies in inflammatory myopathies has improved the characterization of this disease, identifying different clinical phenotypes. Patients with dermatomyositis (DM) and anti-MDA5 antibodies display typical skin symptoms, lesser muscular involvement, and a prevalence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) of up to 91%. Beyond ILD, spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SN) has been identified as a rare but potentially fatal pulmonary manifestation. Two cases of this complication in patients with anti-MDA5 DM are reported...

UNLABELLED: Temporal arteritis (TA) is the most common form of systemic vasculitis. Its diagnosis is based on criteria proposed by the American College of Rheumatology (1990), and its treatment is high-dose corticosteroids. Our objective is to assess the cost of diagnosing TA, and secondarily, cost-effective analysis of different diagnostic strategies (clinical, biopsy, doppler ultrasound) and therapeutic strategies (corticosteroid suspension). MATERIAL AND METHOD: Observational, retrospective study has been carried out on patients with AT (2012-2021)...

OBJECTIVE: To develop multidisciplinary recommendations based on available evidence and expert consensus for the therapeutic management of patients with refractory Behçet's syndrome (BS) (difficult to treat, severe resistant, severe relapse) to conventional treatment. METHODS: A group of experts identified clinical research questions relevant to the objective of the document. These questions were reformulated in PICO format (patient, intervention, comparison and outcome)...

OBJECTIVE: To establish the predictive value of the QRESEARCH risk estimator version 3 (QRISK3) algorithm in identifying Spanish patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) at high risk of cardiovascular (CV) events and CV mortality. We also sought to determine whether to combine QRISK3 with another CV risk algorithm: the traditional SCORE, the modified SCORE (mSCORE) EULAR 2015/2016 or the SCORE2 may increase the identification of AS patients with high-risk CV disease. METHODS: Information of 684 patients with AS from the Spanish prospective CARdiovascular in ReuMAtology (CARMA) project who at the time of the initial visit had no history of CV events and were followed in rheumatology outpatient clinics of tertiary centers for 7...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of thromboembolic events in children and adolescents with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science to select relevant articles published between 1 January 2000 and 27 February 2022. We used the random-effects meta-analysis to estimate pooled point prevalence rates of thromboembolic events in studies with a minimum sample size of 30...

OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study aimed to perform the first external validation of the ACR/EULAR classification criteria for inflammatory myopathy (IIM) in a Mexican dynamic cohort where the patients were evaluated with clinical and laboratory values. As secondary objectives, we presented the clinical characteristics of the patients and included antibodies other than anti Jo1 to evaluate their impact on our population. METHODOLOGY: This study included 70 patients with IIM and 70 patients with differential diagnoses of IIM, according to the absolute score of the classification criteria...

OBJECTIVES: To describe the status of using biological Disease Modifying Anti Rheumatic Drugs (bDMARDs) to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and related factors. In addition, the study determined the impact of COVID-19 on the usage of bDMARDs. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study and included 219 RA patients over 18 years old. The Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test (p<0.05) were used to estimate the retention time and compare between different times...

OBJECTIVE: In this study, our objective was to present real-life data on the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) among patients receiving secukinumab treatment. METHODS: The study consisted of 209 patients who had prior exposure to anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or were biologically naive. Patients with a pre-existing history of IBD were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Of the 209 patients in the study, 176 (84.3%) had ankylosing spondylitis, while 33 (15...

OBJECTIVES: Adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity has shown good performance in diagnosing pleural, peritoneal, and meningeal tuberculosis. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the performance of measuring ADA activity in synovial fluid for the early diagnosis of joint tuberculosis. METHODS: We searched published information in MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and MedRxiv databases, as well as unpublished information in the American College of Rheumatology and European League Against Rheumatism for conference abstracts (2012-2021)...

OBJECTIVES: When rheumatoid arthritis (RA) starts after the age of 60 it is called elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA) and when it starts earlier, young-onset rheumatoid arthritis. (YORA). There are few Latin American studies that compared both groups. The objective of the study was to evaluate differences in the clinical characteristics, evolution and treatment among patients with RA with onset before or after 60 years of age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Observational study of patients with RA attended consecutively in four centers in Argentina...

UNLABELLED: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) has a mortality rate 1,3 to 3 times higher than the general population, with cardiovascular mortality accounting for 40-50% of cases. Currently, cardiovascular disease is considered an extraarticular manifestation of RA (OR: 1,5-4,0). Ultrasound measurement of the intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery and the presence of atherosclerotic plaques (AP) is a non-invasive method and a surrogate marker of subclinical arteriosclerosis...

Gluteal pain is a frequent cause of medical attention in the daily clinical practice. It can be caused by multiple pathologies, being ischiofemoral impingement syndrome among those included in its differential diagnosis. Encompassed within the deep gluteal syndromes, this entity occurs as a consequence of the entrapment of the neuromuscular structures between the lesser femoral trochanter and the ischial tuberosity, causing pain in the root of the lower limb, with irradiation towards the thigh or the gluteal region and poor tolerance to deambulation and sedestation...

Pseudoseptic arthritis is a rare complication of hyaluronic acid (HA) injections that often is difficult to differentiate from septic arthritis. Patients present acute pain, swelling and joint effusion normally around 24h after the second or third HA infiltration. We describe a female patient with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis and flare-ups of knee arthritis with pseudoseptic features in the past, who develops pseudoseptic arthritis of the knee following her first injection of hyaluronic acid.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study is to identify the extent to which it affects clinical decisions in a single-centre observational retrospective study. METHOD: The results of 801 requests and 1174 consecutive individual ultrasound examinations performed over 10 months were analysed. RESULTS: The most frequent indication was diagnostic assistance (39%) followed by assessment of inflammatory activity (34%). By topography, the hand was the most frequently studied region (51%), followed by the foot (18...

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic disease characterized by widespread pain. Although much is known about this disease, research has focused on diagnosis and treatment, leaving aside factors related to patient's experience and the relationship with healthcare system. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to analyze the available evidence on the experience of FM patients from the first symptoms to diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. METHODS: A scoping review was carried out...

PURPOSE: Early referral of patients with suspicious of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has an impact on prognosis. Our study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with hands arthralgia who were referred from primary care physicians (PCP) to the rheumatologist. METHODS: A descriptive, observational, prospective cohort study was performed. We included patients who visited a PCP for the first time for hands arthralgia. Demographics and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology criteria for arthralgia suspicious for progression to RA plus seven complementary questions, the time to referral, the pressure needed to provoke pain with an automatic squeeze test machine in the metacarpophalangeal joints of both hands, and the diagnoses established at the last review of medical charts from patients on follow-up were documented...

OBJECTIVE: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important indicator of population health and can measure the impact of medical actions. The main objective of this study was to determine the HRQoL of patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) and compare it with that of the general population. METHODS: Observational, cross-sectional, single-center study, with consecutive inclusion of outpatients over 18 years of age seen at a Rheumatology hospital-based outpatient clinic in Madrid...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of combined treatment with prednisone and methotrexate (MTX) versus prednisone alone over laboratory parameters in giant cell arteritis (GCA). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial about usefulness of treatment with prednisone and MTX versus prednisone and placebo in GCA (Ann Intern Med 2001;134:106-114). As a part of follow-up of patients (n=42), we performed laboratory analysis in 20 time points during the two-year period of follow-up...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Fibromyalgia is characterized by musculoskeletal pain and asthenia of chronic course. Fibromyalgia patients are often a challenge for the health care community as a whole. Existing studies are often limited to the opinion of rheumatologists or family physicians. With this study we seek to know what are the actions, perceptions and knowledge of health professionals as a whole when caring for patients with this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Descriptive cross-sectional study, by means of a self-administered and anonymous survey...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of the disease in patients with PsA in daily clinical practice and to evaluate its relationship with its axial activity. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in consecutive patients attended from January 2021 to December 2021 who met the CASPAR criteria, with clinical of inflammatory back pain and positive axial imaging, with or without peripheral involvement. Demographic, clinical, analytical data, HAQ index, PsAID12 and activity index (BASDAI and ASDAS-PCR) were also collected...