Search results for " Rheumatoid arthritis"

Echo-Doppler left ventricular filling abnormalities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis without clinically evident cardiovascular disease

1996

Our investigation aimed at verifying diastolic abnormalities in rheumatoid patients, without clinically evident cardiovascular disease and other confounding complaints, by using pulsed Doppler examination of transmitral blood flow. We selected 40 patients fulfilling revised American Rheumatism Association (ARA) criteria for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis having no symptoms of cardiac disease or clinical findings of other extracardiac diseases. We also studied 40 rheumatoid-matched healthy volunteers as a control group. An echocardiographic examination was carried out on each subject. Left ventricular structural and functional measurements were obtained. Interventricular, septal thick…

Interstitial Lung Disease in Elderly Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

2019

The increase in life expectancy together with better care of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has led to higher proportions of elderly individuals with RA. This has challenged the treatment of the disease in older aged patients, usually characterized by comorbid conditions and polypharmacy. Overall, the lung involvement in RA is present in up to 80% of patients, depending on the assessment tools used, and interstitial abnormalities are among the most common; when present, interstitial lung disease (ILD) worsens the prognosis of RA, and is the second most common cause of mortality. The aged lung undergoes functional and structural changes termed immunosenescence and inflammaging, which facilitate t…

BRONJ in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A multicenter case series

2016

Objective: Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a potentially severe adverse effect of various medications (bisphosphonates, anti-resorptive, and anti-angiogenic drugs). ONJ pathogenesis is still unclear although some risk factors have been recognized. Of these, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been hypothesized as a potential risk factor for developing ONJ. This observational study will describe a multicenter case series of patients affected with RA and ONJ, and it will attempt to evaluate the association between features of ONJ and pharmacological, systemic, and site variables. Methods: Demographic, pharmacological, and clinical data from 18 RA patients with ONJ were collected and registered fr…

Long-term anti-TNF therapy and the risk of serious infections in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: Comparison of adalimumab, etanercept…

2012

Objective: To evaluate the risk of serious infections (SIs) in RA patients receiving anti-TNF therapy on the basis of the data included in the GISEA register. METHODS: The study involved 2769 adult patients with long-standing RA (mean age 53.2±13.4years; mean disease duration 9.0±8.3years) enrolled in the GISEA register, who had been treated for at least 6months with TNF inhibitors or had discontinued therapy due to SI: 837 (30%) treated with infliximab (IFN), 802 (29%) with adalimumab (ADA), and 1130 (41%) with etanercept (ETN). RESULTS: 176 patients had experienced at least one of the 226 Sis during the 9years of treatment with an anti-TNF agent, an overall incidence of 31.8/1000 patient-…

Monocytes from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes mellitus display an increased production of interleukin (IL)-1β via the nucleot…

2015

Summary A better understanding about the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) showed that inflammatory cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin (IL)-1β play a pivotal role, mirroring data largely reported in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). IL-1β is produced mainly by monocytes (MO), and hyperglycaemia may be able to modulate, in the cytoplasm of these cells, the assembly of a nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat containing family pyrin (NLRP3)-inflammosome, a cytosolic multi-protein platform where the inactive pro-IL-1β is cleaved into active form, via caspase-1 activity. In this paper, we evaluated the production of IL-1 β …

Microvesicles shed by oligodendroglioma cells and rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts contain aggrecanase activity

2012

Membrane microvesicle shedding is an active process and occurs in viable cells with no signs of apoptosis or necrosis. We report here that microvesicles shed by oligodendroglioma cells contain an ‘aggrecanase’ activity, cleaving aggrecan at sites previously identified as targets for adamalysin metalloproteinases with disintegrin and thrombospondin domains (ADAMTSs). Degradation was inhibited by EDTA, the metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001 and by tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP)-3, but not by TIMP-1 or TIMP-2. This inhibitor profile indicates that the shed microvesicles contain aggrecanolytic ADAMTS(s) or related TIMP-3-sensitive metalloproteinase(s). The oligodendroglioma cells…

Mortality in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma predicted by six scoring: none is the winner

2007

Efficacy and safety of rituximab with and without methotrexate in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients: Results from the GISEA register

2014

Abstract Introduction Rituximab (RTX) is a monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in association with methotrexate (MTX). Objectives To evaluate the efficacy and safety of RTX–MTX combination therapy compared with RTX alone in the treatment of RA. Methods We analyzed data from a prospective cohort study, the Italian biologic register GISEA, to investigate the efficacy and safety of rituximab. Moreover, the adverse events (AE) and the causes of discontinuation therapy were analyzed. Results We identified 338 RA patients, 162 treated with RTX and 176 with RTX–MTX. After 52 and 104 weeks of therapy the disease activity score in 28 joints and the H…

Hypocomplementemia in children with juvenile idiopatic arthritis treated with tocilizumab: personal records

2017

The relieve of a reduction in complement levels was recently reported in adults with Rheumatoid Arthritis treated with tocilizumab (TCZ). However, there are no data in children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) treated with TCZ.

Endothelial progenitor cells: Are they displaying a function in autoimmune disorders?

2016

Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) are bone marrow derived cells able to differentiate in mature endothelial cells (EC) contributing to the generation of new vessels, connecting to fibronectin, and forming colonies and/or colony forming units. Since circulating EPCs can be actively considered part of endothelial damage in several cardiovascular diseases and autoimmune disorders the possibility to have a measure for endothelium damage should be considered of interest to predict the patient out-come. At the same time the EPCs proliferative and regenerative role could be considered for therapeutic applications. Studies have been performed to elucidate the role of EPCs in Systemic Sclerosis an…