Predictors of inflammatory arthritis among new rheumatology referrals: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Early diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory arthritis (IA) is essential to optimize disease control. We aimed to identify variables that distinguish IA from non-inflammatory arthropathy by performing a cross-sectional study of rheumatology referral letters and visit records. Further work describes time to assessment and documentation of variables within referral letters.

Efficacy of Combination Therapy with the JAK Inhibitor Baricitinib in the Treatment of COVID-19.

Unlabelled: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), resulting from infection with SARS-CoV-2, spans a wide spectrum of illness. In severely ill patients, highly elevated serum levels of certain cytokines and considerable cytolytic T cell infiltrates in the lungs have been observed. These same patients may bear low to negligible viral burdens suggesting that an overactive immune response, often termed cytokine storm, contributes to the severity of COVID-19.

Efficacy of Combination Therapy With The JAK Inhibitor Baricitinib In The Treatment of COVID-19.

Background: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), resulting from infection with SARS-CoV-2, spans a wide spectrum of illness. In severely ill patients, highly elevated serum levels of certain cytokines and considerable cytolytic T cell infiltrates in the lungs have been observed. These same patients may bear low to negligible viral burdens suggesting that an overactive immune response, often termed cytokine storm, contributes to the severity of COVID-19.

Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibody-Associated Vasculitis with Kidney Involvement in a Patient with AL Amyloidosis.

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA) vasculitis has occasionally been associated with other systemic glomerulonephritis, such as anti-glomerular basement membrane disease. Here, we report the first clinical case of ANCA-associated crescentic glomerulonephritis with AL amyloidosis. An 81-years-old gentleman presented to the hospital with acute kidney injury (serum creatinine 4.

Parathyroid hormone-related protein is induced by hypoxia and promotes expression of the differentiated phenotype of human articular chondrocytes.

PTHrP (parathyroid hormone-related protein) is crucial for normal cartilage development and long bone growth and acts to delay chondrocyte hypertrophy and terminal differentiation in the growth plate. After growth plate closure adult HACs (human articular chondrocytes) still produce PTHrP, suggesting a possible role for this factor in the permanent articular cartilage. However, the expression regulation and function of PTHrP in the permanent articular cartilage is unknown.

Hypoxia promotes the production and inhibits the destruction of human articular cartilage.

Objective: To determine the effects of hypoxia on both anabolic and catabolic pathways of metabolism in human articular cartilage and to elucidate the roles played by hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) in these responses.

Methods: Normal human articular cartilage from a range of donors was obtained at the time of above-the-knee amputations due to sarcomas not involving the joint space. Fresh cartilage tissue explants and isolated cells were subjected to hypoxia and treatment with interleukin-1α.

Inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor-targeting prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing protein 2 (PHD2) enhances matrix synthesis by human chondrocytes.

Human articular cartilage is an avascular tissue, and therefore it functions in a hypoxic environment. Cartilage cells, the chondrocytes, have adapted to this and actually use hypoxia to drive tissue-specific functions. We have previously shown that human chondrocytes enhance cartilage matrix synthesis in response to hypoxia specifically through hypoxia-inducible factor 2alpha (HIF-2alpha)-mediated up-regulation of master regulator transcription factor SOX9, which in turn drives expression of the main cartilage-specific extracellular matrix genes.

Hypoxia. HIF-mediated articular chondrocyte function: prospects for cartilage repair.

In a chronically hypoxic tissue such as cartilage, adaptations to hypoxia do not merely include cell survival responses, but also promotion of its specific function. This review will focus on describing such hypoxia-mediated chondrocyte function, in particular in the permanent articular cartilage. The molecular details of how chondrocytes sense and respond to hypoxia and how this promotes matrix synthesis have recently been examined, and specific manipulation of hypoxia-induced pathways is now considered to have potential therapeutic application to maintenance and repair of articular cartilage.