Fractures in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and end-stage renal disease.

Unlabelled: Having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD) can lead to fractures. RA independently increases the risk of hip or other femur fracture in dialysis patients. Use of corticosteroids is a potentially modifiable risk factor for fractures among persons with RA and ESRD on dialysis.

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Mortality in End Stage Renal Disease.

Objective: To determine whether rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality in End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

Methods: Cohort study of adult patients with ESRD in the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) with RA and a 5% random sample of those without RA. CVD events, all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality were determined in those with RA compared to those without RA using Cox Proportional Hazards modeling.

Hydroxychloroquine in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus with end-stage renal disease.

Objectives: To determine dosing patterns and examine predictors of filled hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) prescriptions in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with SLE in the US Renal Data System (USRDS) database in fiscal year 2011. All patients were Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

Not just another case of low back pain.

A 55-year-old woman presented with persistent, progressive low back and neck pain for 5 years that had failed conservative therapy with analgesics and epidural injections. Physical examination revealed range of motion of lumbar and cervical spine were significantly limited in all directions and she had a bluish discolouration of the pinnae bilaterally. She had elevated urinary excretion of homogentisic acid, diagnostic of alkaptonuria.

Undiagnosed myocardial sarcoidosis presenting as life threatening cardiac dysrhythmia.

Sarcoidosis is a systemic disorder of unknown aetiology characterised by its pathological hallmark of non-caseating granuloma. Definitive diagnosis requires compatible clinical and imaging features as well as pathogenic identification of non-caseating granulomas in at least one organ. The disease has a wide variety of clinical and radiological manifestations but is associated with low mortality.

How to collect an MDHAQ to provide rheumatology vital signs (function, pain, global status, and RAPID3 scores) in the infrastructure of rheumatology care, including some misconceptions regarding the MDHAQ.

Patient history data are prominent in rheumatology patient management and should be captured at each visit as standard, quantitative, scientific data by a self-report questionnaire. Patient questionnaire data on a multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ) provide scores for physical function, pain, global estimate of status, and routine assessment of patient index data (RAPID3), which may be regarded as rheumatology vital signs. Patient questionnaires designed for usual clinical care, such as the MDHAQ, save time and improve the quality and documentation of the visit for the patient and the physician.

Symptomatic hypercalcemia in a patient with chronic tophaceous gout: a case report.

Hypercalcemia has been widely associated with granulomatous processes. This is due to enhanced extra-renal conversion of calcidiol to calcitriol by activated macrophages within the granuloma. Symptomatic hypercalcemia due to granulomatous disorders is not common, with the incidence in sarcoidosis ranging from 10-20%.