(Dis)agreement of polymyalgia rheumatica relapse criteria, and prediction of relapse in a retrospective cohort.

Background: To develop and assess a prediction model for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) relapse within the first year of glucocorticoid (GC) treatment.

Methods: A retrospective PMR cohort (clinical diagnosis) from a rheumatology department was used. All visits > 30 days after starting GC treatment and with > 2.

Polymorphisms at phase I-metabolizing enzyme and hormone receptor loci influence the response to anti-TNF therapy in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

The aim of this case-control study was to evaluate whether 47 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in steroid hormone-related genes are associated with the risk of RA and anti-TNF drug response. We conducted a case-control study in 3 European populations including 2936 RA patients and 2197 healthy controls. Of those, a total of 1985 RA patients were treated with anti-TNF blockers.

Measurement characteristics of a new rapid anti-CCP2 test compared to the anti-CCP2 ELISA.

Objective: Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP)2 antibody status is an important diagnostic tool in the work-up of undifferentiated arthritis (UA)/early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but the results of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are only available a few days after the test. The aim of this study was to assess the measurement characteristics of a rapid anti-CCP2 test compared to the usual anti-CCP2 ELISA test.

Methods: In the first phase, rapid anti-CCP2 (CCPoint) tests were performed in capillary blood obtained by finger puncture (CAP), in venous blood from a clot tube (CLOT) and in serum (SERUM) in consenting RA patients.