Journal of Rheumatology

OBJECTIVE: Although exercise therapy is safe, effective and recommended within the nonpharmacological treatment in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), guidelines regarding type and dosage lack. Insufficient knowledge about physical and physiological parameters makes designing effective exercise programs challenging. Therefore, the goal was to simultaneously assess trunk strength, spinal mobility and the axSpA patients' cardiorespiratory fitness. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 58 axSpA patients (mean age:40...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the minimal important change (MIC) and meaningful change value (MCV) of the disease activity index for psoriatic arthritis (DAPSA) and the effect size (ES) of DAPSA. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study, recruiting 106 patients who agreed to participate in the research from the Department of Dermatology at Xiangya Hospital between November 1, 2019, and April 1, 2023. An anchor-based method using linear regression analyses was used to determine the MICs and MCVs of the DAPSA...

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is characterized by excessive immune activation.1 It involves the activation of lymphocytes and histiocytes that infiltrate various organs and release cytokines.1 .

I remember the banks of the IndusThe silt and the paternal loveCarefree runs, clear minds under the basking sunIt feels to be the time when I truly livedAway from the realities, far from the worldly touchA place all to me where I thrived.

Although it is extremely rare, a few cases of giant cell arteritis (GCA) associated with chronic subdural hematoma (SDH) have been reported.1,2 A 68-year-old woman, who had no history of provoking falls, seizures, alcoholism, or coagulopathy, presented with recent onset pulsatile headache, fever, and mild dizziness.

"Is there any hope I can walk again?"I looked up to see an elderly man lying in the hospital bed struggling to put on his portable hearing aid. I gently removed his blanket to help untangle the wires, exposing his frail body in the process.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) attainment is associated with favourable outcomes in patients with recent onset SLE. METHODS: Data from a 13-country longitudinal SLE cohort were collected prospectively between 2013 and 2020. An inception cohort was defined based on disease duration <1 year at enrolment. Patient characteristics between inception and non-inception cohorts were compared. Survival analyses were performed to examine the association between LLDAS attainment and damage accrual and flare...

OBJECTIVE: To conduct an environmental scan and appraisal of online patient resources to support rheumatoid arthritis (RA) flare self-management. METHODS: We used the Google search engine (last search March 2023) using terms: rheumatoid arthritis and flare management. Additional searches targeted major arthritis organizations, regional, national, and international resources. Appraisal of the resources was conducted by two research team members and one patient partner to assess the understandability and actionability of the resource using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT)...

VEXAS (vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory, somatic; OMIM #301054) syndrome is an autoinflammatory condition first described in November 2020.1 It is characterized by vacuoles in myeloid and erythroid precursor cells on bone marrow biopsy and caused by a monogenic somatic mutation in the ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme 1 ( UBA1 ) gene.1,2 .

Social media platforms are an extremely common form of online interaction, with more than 4.5 billion users worldwide in 2022. According to Statista.com, there is a significant expectation that this usage will exceed 6 billion by the year 2027.

OBJECTIVE: Many individuals with rheumatic disease are at higher risk for severe acute COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate risk factors for Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) using an electronic health record (EHR)-based definition. METHODS: We identified patients with prevalent rheumatic diseases and COVID-19 at Mass General Brigham. PASC was defined by ICD codes, relevant labs, vital signs, and medications, at least 30 days following the first COVID-19 infection...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) can present with atypical presentations that are diagnostically challenging. An 84-year-old woman with a history of breast adenocarcinoma treated with lumpectomy and radiation 2 years prior presented with a seizure-like episode.

In this issue of The Journal of Rheumatology , Fairley and colleagues investigated the effects of concomitant left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in a small cohort of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) derived from the larger Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study.1 Consistent with prior reports, the authors found that patients with SSc-ILD with LVDD experienced dyspnea and reduced survival. In addition, these patients were older, had longer SSc disease duration exceeding 6 years, received treatment with immunosuppressive drugs, and had additional cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities...

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that causes necrotizing vasculitis of small- to medium-sized blood vessels and necrotizing granulomatous inflammation, primarily of the upper and lower respiratory system. A 33-year-old woman presented with a 16-month history of headaches, nasal obstruction, and anosmia.

OBJECTIVE: Remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) is characterized by symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema and negative rheumatoid factor (RF). It has been described in setting of malignancy, suggesting a paraneoplastic association. With the increasing use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for the treatment of cancers and emergence of immune related adverse event (irAEs), our objective was to identify and describe cases of ICI associated RS3PE (ICI-RS3PE) and compare to non ICI-RS3PE...

OBJECTIVE: There are complex and interrelated factors that lead to inequitable healthcare delivery in Canada. Many of the factors that underlie these inequities for Canada's geographically dispersed Indigenous Peoples remain underexamined. METHODS: A cohort of 831 First Nations (FN) individuals from urban and remote communities were recruited into a longitudinal study of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk from 2005-2017. Data from each participant's initial enrollment visit was assessed using a survey that captured concerns with health care access...

They were some of the hardest phone calls I'd ever had to make. After more than 25 years of practice, I had to tell patients I'd been seeing for that entire period that I could no longer be their doctor.

We have read with interest the paper by Ridley et al1 on the radiographic damage discordance between the sacroiliac joints (SIJs) and the spine in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) from the Prospective Study of Outcomes in AS (PSOAS) cohort, which includes patients from the United States and Australia. Their results have encouraged us to investigate the prevalence of severe SIJ disease without evidence of concomitant syndesmophytes in the spine in our patient cohort from Spain.

The concept of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as a relapsing and remitting condition is deeply embedded in how clinicians perceive this disease. This perception arises from observations of periods of low disease activity interspersed with episodes of more active disease, which are commonly referred to as "flares."

OBJECTIVE: To assess the long-term safety and effectiveness of tacrolimus as maintenance therapy in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) receiving treatment in real-world clinical settings in Japan. METHODS: An open-label, non-comparative, observational, prospective post-marketing surveillance study was conducted in 1395 patients with LN receiving maintenance treatment with tacrolimus at 278 medical institutions across Japan over a period of 10 years. Tacrolimus continuation rate and cumulative incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), relapse, progression to renal failure and progression to dialysis were calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis...