0000000000050234
AUTHOR
Ferri C
Exploration into Uric and Cardiovascular Disease: Uric Acid Right for heArt Health (URRAH) Project, A Study Protocol for a Retrospective Observational Study.
The relevance of cardiovascular role played by levels of serum uric acid is dramatically growing, especially as cardiovascular risk factor potentially able to exert either a direct deleterious impact or a synergic effect with other cardiovascular risk factors. At the present time, it still remains undefined the threshold level of serum uric acid able to contribute to the cardiovascular risk. Indeed, the available epidemiological case studies are not homogeneous, and some preliminary data suggest that the so-called "cardiovascular threshold limit" may substantially differ from that identified as a cut-off able to trigger the acute gout attack. In such scenario, there is the necessity to clar…
Safety of anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and chronic hepatitis C virus infection.
The prevalence of concurrent rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is probably underestimated because of the increasing spread of this virus worldwide, especially in developing countries. In these patients, anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (anti-TNF-alpha) therapy may aggravate hepatitis and increase viremia. We evaluated the safety of these treatments, which remain controversial.Thirty-one HCV-positive patients (23 women, 8 men, mean age 59+/-13 yrs, mean disease duration 13+/-11.5 SD yrs) with active RA [Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28)3.2] unresponsive to conventional therapies were treated with TNF-alpha blockers (infliximab 11, etanercept 17, adalimumab 3) at…
Association of uric acid with kidney function and albuminuria: the Uric Acid Right for heArt Health (URRAH) Project
Abstract Background Hyperuricemia is commonly observed in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, a better understanding of the relationship among uric acid (UA) values, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and albuminuria may shed light on the mechanisms underlying the excess of cardiovascular mortality associated with both chronic kidney disease and hyperuricemia and lead to better risk stratification. Our main goal was to study the relationships between serum uric acid and kidney disease measures (namely estimated GFR [eGFR] and albuminuria) in a large cohort of individuals at cardiovascular risk from the URic acid Right for heArt Health (URRAH) Project database. Methods Clinica…
Serum uric acid and fatal myocardial infarction: Detection of prognostic cut-off values: The URRAH (Uric Acid Right for Heart Health) study
Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text
Gender-differences in disease distribution and outcome in hospitalized elderly: data from the REPOSI study.
none 330 Women live longer and outnumber men. On the other hand, older women develop more chronic diseases and conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis and depression, leading to a greater number of years of living with disabilities. The aim of this study was to describe whether or not there are gender differences in the demographic profile, disease distribution and outcome in a population of hospitalized elderly people.Retrospective observational study including all patients recruited for the REPOSI study in the year 2010. Analyses are referred to the whole group and gender categorization was applied.A total of 1380 hospitalized elderly subjects, 50.5\% women and 49.5\% men, were conside…
The importance of including uric acid in the definition of metabolic syndrome when assessing the mortality risk
Abstract Introduction Serum uric acid (SUA) has been depicted as a contributory causal factor in metabolic syndrome (MS), which in turn, portends unfavourable prognosis. Aim We assessed the prognostic role of SUA in patients with and without MS. Methods We used data from the multicentre Uric Acid Right for Heart Health study and considered cardiovascular mortality (CVM) as death due to fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden cardiac death, or heart failure. Results A total of 9589 subjects (median age 58.5 years, 45% males) were included in the analysis, and 5100 (53%) patients had a final diagnosis of MS. After a median follow-up of 142 months, we observed 558 events. Using a previousl…
Etanercept maintains the clinical benefit achieved by infliximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who discontinued infliximab because of side effects
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of switching to etanercept treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who already responded to infliximab, but presented side effects. Methods: Charts of 553 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were retrospectively reviewed to select patients who responded to the treatment with infliximab and switched to etanercept because of occurrence of adverse effects. Clinical data were gathered during 24 weeks of etanercept treatment and for the same period of infliximab treatment before infliximab was stopped. Disease Activity Score computed on 44 joints (DAS-44), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) 1st hour, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) of pain, Health Assessm…