Publications by authors named "Angelo L Gaffo"

Purpose Of Review: Gout flares are a paramount component of disease burden inflicted by gout onto the patient. Furthermore, they are included in the core domain set for long-term gout studies recognized by Outcome Measures in Rheumatology. Along with a validated classification criterion for gout, gout investigators have turned their efforts into defining and characterizing the gout flare.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a condition where the immune system attacks the joints, and methotrexate is a key treatment but can lead to vitamin B12 deficiency and high homocysteine levels.
  • A study compared 50 RA patients on methotrexate with 49 on other treatments, looking at their vitamin B12, methylmalonic acid, and homocysteine levels.
  • Results showed that a higher percentage of methotrexate patients had elevated homocysteine levels, indicating a potential risk for vitamin B12 deficiency, even though the overall vitamin B12 levels were similar between the groups.
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Objective: To determine if methotrexate or folic acid prescription was associated with differential risk for COVID-19 diagnosis or mortality.

Design: Case-control analysis.

Setting: The population-based UK Biobank (UKBB) cohort.

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Gout is a common and potentially debilitating disease characterized by a painful inflammatory arthritis ("gout flare"), caused by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals in joints and surrounding tissues. Gout is frequently comorbid with other chronic conditions such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes mellitus, which can make treatment complex, as traditional mainstays (such as allopurinol, colchicine, and corticosteroids) may not be preferred or could have adverse events in such patients. Understanding the pathophysiology of hyperuricemia, gout, and crystalline-driven inflammation is key for drug development and research.

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Gout is a common inflammatory arthritis that tends to affect significantly more men than women. However, female gout patients are more likely to have comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and renal dysfunction. Furthermore, they experience a greater disease burden due to gout than males.

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Objectives: Gout flares are painful and disabling. We developed a smartphone application (app) for patients to tele-monitor gout flares surveyed by clinicians. The aim of this study was to assess patient acceptability and technical and clinical feasibility.

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Background/purpose: Disordered osteoclast activity has been implicated in the pathogenesis of gouty bone erosion. We sought to determine if the addition of denosumab (a monoclonal antibody targeting the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand - RANKL) to intensive urate-lowering therapy (ULT) improves gouty bone erosion.

Methods: Open-label, parallel-group pilot randomized controlled trial in which 20 participants with gout with at least one confirmed conventional radiographic foot bone erosion were assigned in a 1:1 allocation to receive denosumab (60 mg subcutaneous every 6 months) added to intensive ULT (serum urate ≤5 mg/dL or 300 µmol/L at the time of randomization and continued for the duration of the study), or intensive ULT alone.

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Objective: The patient experience of gout flares is multidimensional, with several contributing factors including pain intensity, duration, and frequency. There is currently no consistent method for reporting gout flare burden in long-term studies. This study aimed to determine which factors contribute to patient perceptions of treatment efficacy in long-term studies of gout flare prevention.

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Gout and chronic kidney disease (CKD) frequently coexist, but quality evidence to guide gout management in people with CKD is lacking. Use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) in the context of advanced CKD varies greatly, and professional bodies have issued conflicting recommendations regarding the treatment of gout in people with concomitant CKD. As a result, confusion exists among medical professionals about the appropriate management of people with gout and CKD.

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Gout flare prophylaxis and therapy use in people with underlying chronic kidney disease (CKD) is challenging, given limited treatment options and risk of worsening renal function with inappropriate treatment dosing. This literature review aimed to describe the current literature on the efficacy and safety of gout flare prophylaxis and therapy use in people with CKD stages 3-5. A literature search via PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and EMBASE was performed from 1 January 1959 to 31 January 2018.

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Objective: To determine whether serum urate reduction with allopurinol lowers blood pressure (BP) in young adults and the mechanisms mediating this hypothesized effect.

Methods: We conducted a single-center, randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial. Adults ages 18-40 years with baseline systolic BP ≥120 and <160 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥80 and <100 mm Hg, and serum urate ≥5.

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Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the efficacy, defined as achieving target serum urate <6.0 mg/dl, and safety of urate-lowering therapies (ULTs) for people with gout and chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3-5.

Methods: PubMed, The Cochrane Library and EMBASE were searched from 1 January 1959 to 31 January 2018 for studies that enrolled people with gout, who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or creatinine clearance (CrCl) of <60 ml/min and exposure to allopurinol, febuxostat, probenecid, benzbromarone, lesinurad or pegloticase.

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Objective: The patient experience of a gout flare is multidimensional. To establish the most appropriate methods of flare measurement, there is a need to understand the complete experience of a flare. This qualitative study aimed to examine what factors contribute to the severity of a flare from the patient perspective.

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Objective: To determine the relationship between gout flare rate and self-categorization into remission, low disease activity (LDA), and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS).

Methods: Patients with gout self-categorized as remission, LDA, and PASS, and reported number of flares over the preceding 6 and 12 months. Multinomial logistic regression was used to determine the association between being in each disease state (LDA and PASS were combined) and flare count, and self-reported current flare.

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Objective: There is a lack of standardisation in the terminology used to describe gout. The aim of this project was to develop a consensus statement describing the recommended nomenclature for disease states of gout.

Methods: A content analysis of gout-related articles from rheumatology and general internal medicine journals published over a 5-year period identified potential disease states and the labels commonly assigned to them.

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Objective: To perform external validation of a provisional definition of disease flare in patients with gout.

Methods: Five hundred nine patients with gout were enrolled in a cross-sectional study during a routine clinical care visit at 17 international sites. Data were collected to classify patients as experiencing or not experiencing a gout flare, according to a provisional definition.

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Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to describe the efficacy and safety of rituximab (RTX) as a remission induction and maintenance therapy in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV).

Recent Findings: A PubMed search was carried out to track down articles published between February 2006 and February 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that encompassed patients with AAV were included.

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