Arthritis Care & Research

OBJECTIVE: Relapses are frequent and difficult to predict in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), resulting in long-term use of immunosuppression. Although sinonasal disease is associated with relapse of AAV, detailed characterization of sinonasal symptoms is lacking. Using a patient-reported outcome, the 22-item SinoNasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), we investigated the relationship between sinonasal symptoms and disease activity in AAV. METHODS: This was a prospective, longitudinal study of AAV and healthy individuals...

OBJECTIVE: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients may be stratified as low, intermediate, or high risk of 1-year mortality. In 2022, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) updated and simplified its risk stratification tool, based on three variables: WHO functional class (FC), serum N-terminal pro-brain type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and six-minute walk distance (6MWD)), applied at follow up visits, intended to guide therapy over time. METHODS: We applied the 2022 ESC risk assessment tool at baseline and follow up (within two years) to a multinational incident cohort of systemic sclerosis-associated PAH (SSc-PAH)...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to identify gait alterations related to worsening knee pain, and to worsening physical function, using machine learning approaches applied to wearable-sensor derived data from a large observational cohort. METHODS: Participants in the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) completed a 20-meter walk test wearing inertial sensors on their lower back and ankles. Parameters describing spatiotemporal features of gait were extracted from this data...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVE: In 2020, Strait and colleagues raised awareness that the clinical images in rheumatology educational materials underrepresent people with skin of color (P-SOC). Since then, publishers of rheumatology educational materials have focused on addressing this shortcoming. This study investigates the change in representation of P-SOC following Strait's review. METHODS: We used Strait's methods to collect images from commonly referenced rheumatology educational materials and categorized the skin tones within them as "light" or "dark...

OBJECTIVE: The importance of early integration of palliative care in the management of complex multi-system diseases has been recognised. In this study, we aimed to quantify the need for specialist palliative care in systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: Using data from 875 patients enrolled in the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study, we defined need for palliative care as a high symptom burden at ≥2 consecutive study visits, ≥50% of overall study visits or at the study visit immediately prior to death...

BACKGROUND: Obesity exacerbates pain and functional limitation in persons with knee osteoarthritis (OA). In the Weight Loss and Exercise for Communities with Arthritis in North Carolina (WE-CAN) study, a community-based diet and exercise (D+E) intervention led to an additional 6kg weight loss and 20% greater pain relief in persons with knee OA and BMI>27 kg/m2 relative to a group-based health education (HE) intervention. We sought to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of the Usual Care (UC), UC+HE, and UC+(D+E) programs, comparing each strategy to the 'next-best' strategy, ranked by increasing lifetime cost...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to estimate the temporal trend of osteoarthritis (OA) burden in China by age, sex, and joint sites from 1990 to 2019 and predict the long-term trend over the next 25 years. METHODS: Using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, we estimated incident cases, prevalent cases, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of OA, and DALYs of OA attributed to high body mass index (BMI), as well as corresponding age-standardized rates (ASRs) for aforementioned indicies...

OBJECTIVE: Although patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) experience high levels of depression and anxiety disorders, evidence concerning patient perceptions of facilitators and barriers to effective uptake of mental health services (e.g., referral to therapists and psychiatrists, psychoeducational interventions, support groups) is limited. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 adults with SLE to explore patient experiences and perceptions of mental health services to identify facilitators and barriers to accessing mental health care among patients with SLE...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

OBJECTIVE: We combined claims and electronic health record (EHR) data to provide contemporary and accurate estimates of latent tuberculosis (TB) screening among new users of a biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (b/tsDMARD) and assess potential gaps in testing by drug type, patient characteristics, and practice. METHODS: Our denominator population was patients in the Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry and Medicare using a b/tsDMARD in 2018 without a claim or prescription in the year prior...

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine whether baseline fatty acid intake and erythrocyte omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can predict risk for total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in older women. METHODS: This was a prospective analysis of 34,990 women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Dietary fatty acids were estimated from food frequency questionnaires. Imputed erythrocyte PUFAs were available in a sub-cohort of 3428 women...

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of a Multidisciplinary Care Assessment (MCA) billing code on health system costs and access to care in British Columbia (BC). METHODS: Data on all people treated by rheumatologists in BC were obtained from five linked health administrative databases held by Population Data BC from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2020. Rheumatologists were allocated to either the intervention (ever-billers) or control group (never-billers)...

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the racial/ethnic differences in self-reported doctor-diagnosed arthritis, severe joint pain, and provider counseling for physical activity among US adults with arthritis. METHODS: We estimated prevalence by race/ethnicity among 31,997 adults aged ≥18 years in the 2019 National Health Interview Survey. We used multiple logistic regression models to investigate associations between outcomes and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Compared with non-Hispanic White adults (22...

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to describe rates of general and pain-related psychological distress for individuals with low back pain (LBP) in the Military Health System (MHS). We identified common phenotypes defined by rates of general and pain-related psychological distress and compared phenotypes on their level of pain interference, physical function, anxiety, and depression. METHODS: We created a cohort from two completed trials assessing non-pharmacological treatment for LBP in the MHS (n=510 total)...

OBJECTIVE: Health disparities may be driven by hospital-level factors. We assessed whether racial and ethnic composition of populations hospitals serve explain or modify disparities in hospital outcomes of children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study of patients 5-26 years old with SLE at 47 children's hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System (2006-2021), race and ethnicity were assessed at the patient-level and hospital-level (proportion of total admissions comprised by Black or Hispanic patients, respectively)...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology, associations, and impact of inflammatory arthritis (IA) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: Patients with SSc prospectively enrolled in the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study were included. IA was defined clinically as the presence of synovitis on examination. Logistic regression was used to determine the associations of IA with SSc manifestations and serological parameters. Patient-reported outcome measures were used to capture physical function and health-related quality of life (HRQoL)...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine dose parameters for resistance exercise associated with improvements in pain and physical function in knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA); and whether these improvements were related to adherence. METHODS: We searched 6 databases, from inception to January 28 2023, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing land-based, resistance exercise-only interventions with no intervention or any other intervention. There were four subgroups of intervention duration: 0 to <3 months, 3-6 months, >6 to <12 months, ≥12 months...

OBJECTIVES: There is surging interest in utilizing dual-energy CT (DECT) to identify cardiovascular monosodium urate (MSU) deposits among gout patients. We sought to examine the prevalence and characterization of cardiovascular DECT artifacts using non-ECG-gated DECT pulmonary angiograms. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed non-ECG-gated DECT pulmonary angiograms performed on patients with and without gout at a single academic center. We noted the presence and locations of vascular green colorization using the default post-processing two-material decomposition algorithm for MSU...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.