mixed connective tissue guidelines

OBJECTIVE: To explore the long-term prognostic value of a simplified risk assessment strategy based on the 2015 European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) pulmonary hypertension (PH) guidelines in Chinese patients with connective tissue disease (CTD) associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). METHODS: We identified 50 CTD-PAH patients diagnosed by right heart catheterization. A retrospective chart review was completed to assess their clinical presentation and laboratory test results...

Connective tissue disease (CTD) is a collection of disorders characterized by various signs and symptoms such as circulation of autoantibodies in the entire system causing damage to internal organs. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) which is associated with CTD is referred to as CTD-ILD. Patients diagnosed with ILD should be thoroughly examined for the co-occurrence of CTD, since the treatment procedures and prognosis of CTD-ILD are vary from those of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia. The representative types of CTD which may accompany ILD include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis (SSc), Sjögren's syndrome, mixed CTD, idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, and systemic lupus erythematous...

Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) is a complex overlap disease with features of different autoimmune connective tissue diseases (CTDs) namely systemic sclerosis, poly/dermatomyositis and systemic lupus erythematous in patients with antibodies targeting the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle. In this narrative review, we summarise the results of a systematic literature research which was performed as part of the European Reference Network on Rare and Complex Connective Tissue and Musculoskeletal Diseases project, aimed at evaluating existing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) or recommendations...

AIM: To assess the prevalence of celiac disease (CD) serological markers in a cohort of patients referred to an Italian rheumatological outpatient clinic. BACKGROUND: Current guidelines do not suggest CD screening in patients with rheumatological diseases and these subjects are not considered to be at high risk for CD. METHODS: A total of 230 sera of rheumatological patients referred to the Division of Internal Medicine at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences between January 2005 and December 2013 were screened for CD by testing IgA antitransglutaminase (TTG IgA), IgG deamidated gliadin peptides (DGP IgG) and IgA antiendomysium (EMA) antibodies...

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) and mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) are 2 conditions in which pulmonary hypertension (PH) can develop.We retrospectively analyzed the probability of PH in case of 83 patients (69 SSc and 14 MCTD). The European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society (ESC/ERS) echocardiographic guidelines of 2015 were used for the evaluation.On the basis of an echocardiography, the patients were divided into 2 subgroups: patients with elevated probability of PH (EP) (n = 16) versus the group with a low probability of PH (LP) (n = 67)...

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare solid tumors of mesenchymal cell origin that display a heterogenous mix of clinical and pathologic characteristics. STS can develop from fat, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, and other connective tissues. The evaluation and treatment of patients with STS requires a multidisciplinary team with demonstrated expertise in the management of these tumors. The complete NCCN Guidelines for STS provide recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of extremity/superficial trunk/head and neck STS, as well as intra-abdominal/retroperitoneal STS, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, desmoid tumors, and rhabdomyosarcoma...

BACKGROUND: The management of articular cartilage defects presents many clinical challenges due to its avascular, aneural and alymphatic nature. Bone marrow stimulation techniques, such as microfracture, are the most frequently used method in clinical practice however the resulting mixed fibrocartilage tissue which is inferior to native hyaline cartilage. Other methods have shown promise but are far from perfect. There is an unmet need and growing interest in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to improve the outcome for patients requiring cartilage repair...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a relatively commoner complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc) with estimated prevalence ranging between 8% and 12% as compared to much lower figures in other connective tissue diseases (CTD). It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in CTDs. PH is classified into five major groups. CTD-associated PH belongs to group 1 PH, also known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Around 30% of scleroderma-related deaths are due to PAH. Underlying pathogenesis is related to pulmonary vasculopathy involving small vessels...

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PURPOSE: We investigated the relationship of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction and LV mass index (LVMI) against pulmonary hypertension (PH) in systemic autoimmune disease (SAD). METHODS: A total of 84 SAD patients (68 females; 53±17years; systemic lupus erythematosus, 27%; scleroderma, 17%; vasculitis, 16%; mixed connective tissue disease, 13% and polymyositis/dermatomyositis complex, 10%) without significant pericardial effusion (PE) on TTE (Vivid E9, GE) were analyzed...

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare solid tumors of mesenchymal cell origin that display a heterogenous mix of clinical and pathologic characteristics. STS can develop from fat, muscle, nerves, blood vessels, and other connective tissues. The evaluation and treatment of patients with STS requires a multidisciplinary team with demonstrated expertise in the management of these tumors. The complete NCCN Guidelines for Soft Tissue Sarcoma (available at NCCN.org) provide recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of extremity/superficial trunk/head and neck STS, as well as intra-abdominal/retroperitoneal STS, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, desmoid tumors, and rhabdomyosarcoma...

According to current international guidelines the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) are grouped into three categories; major, rare, and unclassifiable. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one of the major IIPs and has been recognised as a distinct clinical entity since 2001. This has led to significant advances in our understanding and treatment of the disease and to the identification of new therapeutic targets. While multidisciplinary team assessment yields a definite diagnosis in many cases of interstitial lung disease (ILD), 15-25% of patients remain unclassifiable...

Connective tissue disorders (CTD), which are often also termed collagen vascular diseases, include a number of related inflammatory conditions. Some of these diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), localized scleroderma (morphea variants localized to the skin), Sjogren's syndrome, dermatomyositis, polymyositis, and mixed connective tissue disease. In addition to the systemic manifestations of these diseases, there are a number of cutaneous features that make these conditions recognizable on physical exam...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the overall prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in an unselected MCTD cohort and review the current knowledge with a systematic database search. METHODS: A nationwide multicentre cohort of 147 adult MCTD patients were initially screened for PH by echocardiography, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), pulmonary function tests and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and then followed up for a mean of 5...

No guidelines for the application of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the capillaroscopic examination in the rheumatologic practice exist. The aims of the study were to compare qualitative and quantitative analysis of key capillaroscopic parameters in patients with common rheumatic diseases and to assess the reproducibility of the qualitative evaluation of the capillaroscopic parameters, performed by two different investigators. Two hundred capillaroscopic images from 93 patients with different rheumatic diseases were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively by two different investigators...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) was found to be the primary cause of death in mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD). This led to investigation of the prevalence of PH in other connective tissue diseases (CTD). In 1998, the Ministry of Health and Welfare's MCTD Research Committee revealed complication of PH diagnosed by physicians in 5.02% MCTD patients, 0.90% systemic lupus erythematosus patients, 2.64% systemic sclerosis patients, and 0.56% polymyositis/dermatomyositis patients. These results have been supported by a similar survey performed in North America...

Thorough control of risk factors is pivotal for cardiocerebrovascular diseases. As classic risk assessment accounts for only 50% of risk variability and due to the role of inflammatory processes in endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerotic plaque rupture, it is necessary to identify new biomarkers for risk prediction. In addition to the inflammatory marker high sensibility C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), lipoprotein associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is gaining increasing significance, since it is directly involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic plaque progression...

Data on B cell depletion therapy in severe autoimmune diseases in paediatric patients are very limited. We conducted a retrospective cohort study and recruited patients who were treated with rituximab (RTX) and followed up for at least 6 months through the German societies of paediatric rheumatology and nephrology. The aim was to describe the spectrum of autoimmune disorders for which RTX was used and to describe the applied therapeutic regimens, the observed efficacy, as well as potential immunological side effects...

Ex vivo expansion is being used to increase the number of stem and progenitor cells for autologous cell therapy. Initiation of pivotal clinical trials testing the efficacy of these cells for tissue repair has been hampered by the challenge of assuring safe and high-quality cell production. A strategy is described here for clinical-scale expansion of bone marrow (BM)-derived stem cells within a mixed cell population in a completely closed process from cell collection through postculture processing using sterile connectable devices...

Pulmonary involvement is commonly seen in autoimmune disease. In this review the clinical presentation of pulmonary involvement in vasculitis, rheumatoid arthritis and connective tissue disease is presented. Clinical symptoms and diagnostic approach will be discussed.