Autoantibody detection with indirect immunofluorescence on HEp-2 cells: starting serum dilutions for systemic rheumatic diseases.

Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are determined, among other reasons, to identify samples which need a second test to detect the associated specificities. Our aim was to evaluate the clinical and economic impact generated by using an initial dilution for ANA of 1:160. We analyzed all samples for which ANA, anti-ENA and anti-dsDNA were requested over a 1-year period.

Loss of hip bone mineral density over time is associated with spine and hip fracture incidence in osteoporotic postmenopausal women.

The objective of the study assess the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) loss over time and fracture incidence in postmenopausal women. This is a posthoc analysis that includes women from the placebo group of two large randomized controlled trials having assessed the efficacy of a new anti-osteoporotic drug. BMD was assessed every 6 months during 3 years at the lumbar spine, the femoral neck and the total proximal femur.

Strontium ranelate reduces the risk of vertebral and nonvertebral fractures in women eighty years of age and older.

Unlabelled: Strontium ranelate produces an early and sustained reduction of both vertebral and nonvertebral fractures in patients > or = 80 years of age.

Introduction: About 25-30% of the population burden of all fragility fractures in the community arise from women > or = 80 years of age, because this population is at high risk for all types of fracture, particularly nonvertebral fractures. Despite this, evidence that therapies reduce the risk of both vertebral and nonvertebral fractures in this group is lacking.