Rheumatology

OBJECTIVE: To better define the clinical distinctions between the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related paediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome (PIMS) and Kawasaki disease (kDa). METHODS: We compared three groups of patients: group 1, cases from our national historic kDa database (kDa-HIS); group 2, patients with kDa admitted to an intensive care unit (kDa-ICU) from both our original cohort and the literature; and group 3, patients with PIMS from the literature...

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OBJECTIVES: To identify novel genetic loci associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to evaluate potential genetic differences between ethnic Chinese and European populations in SLE susceptibility. METHODS: A new genome-wide association study (GWAS) was conducted from Jining, North China, on 1,506 individuals (512 SLE cases and 994 matched healthy controls). The association results were meta-analyzed with existing data on Chinese populations from Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Central China, as well as GWAS results from four cohorts of European ancestry...

OBJECTIVES: Microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) is often complicated by interstitial lung disease (ILD); however, biomarkers that can be used to diagnose and predict the progression of MPA-ILD have not been identified. In this study we evaluated various serum biomarkers in MPA-ILD to assess their diagnostic and predictive performance. METHODS: We enrolled 49 patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)+ MPA and 10 healthy controls, with 32 of the MPA patients also presented ILD...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVES: Direct inhibition of M1 polarisation of synovial macrophages may be a useful therapeutic treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) and OA-associated synovitis. Frugoside (FGS) is a cardiac glycoside compound isolated and extracted from Calotropis gigantea. Cardiac glycosides possess interesting anti-inflammatory potential. However, the corresponding activity of FGS has not been reported. Therefore, our aim was to find direct evidence of the effects of FGS on synovial macrophage M1 polarisation and OA control...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate phenotypic and molecular characteristics of a consanguineous family with autosomal-recessive, polyarticular, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) with extra-articular manifestations, including renal amyloidosis and Crohn's disease, associated with a novel homozygous truncating variant in LACC1. METHODS: Whole exome sequencing (WES) or targeted Sanger verification were performed in 15 participants. LACC1 expression and cytokine array were analyzed in patient-derived and CRISPR/Cas9-generated LACC1-knockout macrophages (Mϕ)...

OBJECTIVES: Serious infection is a concern for patients with inflammatory joint diseases treated with biological drugs (bDMARDs). The objectives were to compare risk of serious infection, defined as infection leading to hospitalization, in patients initiating bDMARD treatment with the general population and, second, to develop a simple clinical prediction model and to obtain risk estimates for individual patients. METHODS: Matched-cohort study based on nationwide registries in Denmark...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence, profile and predictors of infections in an Indian cohort of IIM. METHODS: We reviewed the records of a retrospective cohort of IIM enrolled from consecutive patients following up in the clinic as the observation cohort (OC). A newly diagnosed inception cohort of IIM were followed prospectively as the validation cohort (VC) to confirm observations and compare with the OC. RESULTS: Among 68 patients in the OC (age 33...

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BACKGROUND: The ability to identify lupus patients in High Disease Activity Status (HDAS) without knowledge of the SLEDAI could have application in selection of patients for treatment escalation or enrolment in trials. We sought to generate an algorithm that could calculate via model fitting the presence of HDAS using simple demographic and laboratory values. METHODS: We examined the association of High Disease Activity (HDA) with demographic and laboratory parameters using prospectively collected data...

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OBJECTIVES: To characterize the phenotypic presentation at diagnosis of childhood-onset primary Sjögren syndrome (SjS). METHODS: The Big Data Sjögren Project Consortium is an international, multicentre registry using worldwide data-sharing cooperative merging of pre-existing clinical SjS databases from the five continents. For this study, we selected those patients in whom the disease was diagnosed below the age of 19 according to the fulfilment of the 2002/2016 classification criteria...

OBJECTIVES: Emerging evidence suggests a potential link between osteoarthritis (OA) and gout; however, the association between serum uric acid (UA) itself and knee OA remains uncertain due to a lack of longitudinal studies. Here, we investigated the association between serum UA and knee OA according to cartilage status in elderly community residents without gout. METHODS: In this longitudinal study, participants without a history of gout were recruited from among the Korean cohort of the Hallym Aging Study (n = 296 for radiography study and n = 223 for MRI study)...

This article reviews the role of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS) for the diagnosis, monitoring and treat-to-target management of JIA. Technological advancements in MSUS allow more precise evaluation of arthritis, tenosynovitis and enthesitis vs clinical examination alone, which may assist treatment decisions. In adult studies, serum and synovial biomarkers have correlated with MSUS findings. Within paediatric rheumatology, significant developments in the definition of normal and pathology, a necessity for the future integration of MSUS into treat-to-target management, have already been reached or are underway, which in turn could allow tighter control of disease activity and earlier identification of treatment response and failure, bringing the goal of 'precision medicine' closer...

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OBJECTIVES: To determine whether ultrasound (US)-detected synovitis affects the therapeutic efficacy of hyaluronic acid (HA) injection for treating knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Patients with symptomatic knee OA were recruited. All the patients received HA injection two times at 2-week intervals. Clinical assessments were performed using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) at baseline and 1 and 6 months after treatment...

OBJECTIVES: We determined the mortality along with the proportion of disease related adverse events measured individually and by a composite adverse outcome (devised by including deaths, disability, relapses, and minimal response) and its predictors in an inception cohort of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies (IIM). METHODS: IIM from the MyoCite cohort (December 2017-19) were reviewed for early outcomes (mortality, IMACS core set). Comparisons were drawn between those meeting the primary and secondary outcomes...