International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to quantitatively analyze lung parenchymal changes in Behçet's patients and to detect early parenchymal quantitative changes that occur in the absence of positive visual radiological findings. METHODS: In our study, a total of 31 patients with Behçet's disease, 17 with positive radiological findings and 14 patients without positive radiological findings, and a control group of 33 individuals were evaluated. The automatic program determined lung volumes, lung densities, and opacity volume percentages by evaluating the contrast-enhanced lung computed tomography scans...

OBJECTIVES: The development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been classified into 6 phases A-F according to the present risk factors in sequence of genes, environments, autoimmunity, arthralgia and joint swelling. To clarify the ultrasound synovitis scores in at-risk patients (phases C-E) and RA (phase F). METHODS: Patients who had been experiencing hand joint symptoms for at least 6 weeks and asymptomatic patients with positive rheumatoid factor and/or anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies were enrolled...

BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a disorder with a complex immunopathogenesis. It is well known that the disease begins with immunological alterations and autoantibody appearance in the serum years before clinical onset. As SLE has a strong tendency to familial aggregation, first-degree relatives (FDRs) constitute a group at elevated risk. The current understanding is that external risk factors trigger underlying immune dysregulations, leading to overt disease in those with elevated genetic risk...

INTRODUCTION: Rituximab, which is used in autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD), can cause both an increased risk of development of COVID-19 disease and re-infection due to its potent and long-acting immunosuppression. So, we aimed to evaluate the frequency, risk factors and re-infection rates of COVID-19 in ARD patients receiving rituximab. METHODS: A single-center retrospective study was performed with patients receiving rituximab for ARD in 12 months before the onset of COVID-19 in Turkey...

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INTRODUCTION: There are no drugs specifically approved to treat cutaneous lupus. Inflammatory cells in lupus skin lesions can produce leukotrienes (LT), which promote tissue damage. In addition to hypersensitivity reactions, LT are also associated with cardiovascular diseases and elevated serum LT levels have been linked to worse atherosclerotic disease in lupus. Targeting LT could thus be an alternative to treat lupus. We present 4 cases of cutaneous lupus successfully treated with montelukast (MLK), a Cys-LT antagonist...

Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthropathy (nr-axSpA) is a clinical diagnosis of symptoms matching inflammatory back pain criteria without radiological lesions at the sacroiliac joint. The frequency of an early nr-axSpA-like presentation in lymphoma patients has not been clarified. Here we report a woman in her 20s with a fever and musculoskeletal discomfort. Detailed investigations revealed that she was suffering from Burkitt lymphoma in which nr-axSpA-like symptoms were a musculoskeletal manifestation of the disease, irrelevant to the anti-neoplastic treatment...

OBJECTIVES: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is common in anti-synthetase syndrome (ASS). Progressive fibrosing ILD (PF-ILD) may develop in ILD with autoimmune features. Data on PF-ILDs in ASS as a group are scarce. This study aimed to explore the characteristics and predictors of PF-ILD in ASS patients. METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled 96 ASS-ILD patients. Baseline clinical data were collected. PF-ILD assessments were conducted at every hospital visit during windows of 24 months after initial diagnosis...

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: People with rheumatic diseases are particularly concerned with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Our work aimed to study the impact of pre-existing autoimmune rheumatic disease (AIRD) and its immunosuppressive drugs on COVID-19 severity and outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a multicenter case-control study performed between September 2020 and February 2021 on 130 adults with COVID-19, including 66 patients with AIRD and 64 without AIRD, who served as a control group...

AIM: This study aimed to show the effectiveness of interleukin (IL)-23 inhibitors in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) at weeks 12 and 24 in a real-world setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-three patients with active PsA were enrolled in this study. These patients were treated with either guselkumab (n = 20) or risankizumab (n = 23). Treatment responses at the 12th and 24th weeks were evaluated with the parameters of the number of joints with active arthritis, Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) response rate, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) score, Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA) score, and C-reactive protein (CRP) value...

OBJECTIVES: Secukinumab (SEC) is an effective and widely used drug in psoriatic disease and axial spondyloarthritis. However, SEC has been found to be associated with inflammatory conditions and vasculitis. These inflammatory adverse effects may complicate the treatment of underlying disease, and clinicians may experience difficulties in recognizing and managing this unusual condition. CASE REPORT: A man aged 56 years with psoriatic disease refractory to conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs was given adalimumab for 6 weeks, then switched to SEC when his psoriatic lesions were exacerbated...

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Subchondral insufficiency fracture (SIF) of the femoral head occurs in patients with osteoporosis, elderly women, and renal or liver transplant recipients. Although SIF has been reported in several patients with rheumatic disease, SIF of the femoral head has not been reported in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and the association between AS and SIF has not been determined. A 48-year-old man with AS presented with pain in his left hip for 2 months. He had been diagnosed with AS and radiographic bilateral grade 3 sacroiliitis 11 years earlier...

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OBJECTIVE: To identify predictive factors associated with mortality in connective tissue disease-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (CTD-PAH) patients who were complicated with right heart failure (RHF). METHODS: In this single-center retrospective study, baseline demographics, clinical features, laboratory results, and hemodynamic assessments were collected. Kaplan-Meier analysis was applied to analyze all-cause mortality. Univariate and forward stepwise multivariate Cox proportional regression analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of mortality...

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OBJECTIVE: The causalities between the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the risk of rheumatic diseases remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the causal effect of COVID-19 on rheumatic disease occurrence. METHODS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), acquired from published genome-wide association studies, were used to perform 2-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) on cases diagnosed with COVID-19 (n = 13 464), rheumatic diseases (n = 444 199), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA, n = 15 872), gout (n = 69  374), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, n = 3094), ankylosing spondylitis (n = 75 130), primary biliary cholangitis (PBC, n = 11 375) and primary Sjögren's syndrome (n = 95 046)...

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