[Takayasu arteritis. Therapeutic alternatives and long term outcomes].

The aim of this study was to describe the long term prognosis of 34 patients with Takayasu arteritis and the results of surgical and endovascular treatment. A total of 5 central surgeries and 53 endovascular procedures were performed including 18 bypass surgeries (33.8%) and 35 angioplasties (66.

Impact of genetic ancestry and sociodemographic status on the clinical expression of systemic lupus erythematosus in American Indian-European populations.

Objective: American Indian-Europeans, Asians, and African Americans have an excess morbidity from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and a higher prevalence of lupus nephritis than do Caucasians. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between genetic ancestry and sociodemographic characteristics and clinical features in a large cohort of American Indian-European SLE patients.

Methods: A total of 2,116 SLE patients of American Indian-European origin and 4,001 SLE patients of European descent for whom we had clinical data were included in the study.

Myocarditis as a form of relapse in two patients with adult Still's disease.

Still's disease is a subset of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) that usually presents with intermittent fever, rash, and arthritis. Extra-articular flares can occur several years after disease onset. We report two cases of adult Still's disease with myocarditis after several years of being in remission.

Argentine population genetic structure: large variance in Amerindian contribution.

Argentine population genetic structure was examined using a set of 78 ancestry informative markers (AIMs) to assess the contributions of European, Amerindian, and African ancestry in 94 individuals members of this population. Using the Bayesian clustering algorithm STRUCTURE, the mean European contribution was 78%, the Amerindian contribution was 19.4%, and the African contribution was 2.

Design, development and evaluation of a competitive RT-PCR for quantitation of GBV-C RNA.

Although GB virus C (GBV-C) hepatocyte pathogenicity is still controversial, it appears that at least some strains of this virus are lymphotropic. During the past few years, several reports have documented an apparently beneficial role played by GBV-C in the course of HIV-1 infection. At present, a commercial kit for GBV-C RNA quantitation is not available.

Parvovirus B19: another agent associated with remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema.

A number of conditions have been associated with remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema (RS3PE) and the controversy of whether this should be considered a syndrome rather than a disease continues. There are few reports on the role of infectious agents in the etiology of RS3PE, and human parvovirus B19 has not previously been linked to this syndrome. We describe a patient with RS3PE syndrome in association with positive serology and viremia for parvovirus B19.

Chromosome 17p12-q11 harbors susceptibility loci for systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoantibodies against intracellular components, the formation of immune complexes, and inflammation in various organs, typically the skin and kidney glomeruli. The etiology of the disease is not well understood but is most likely the result of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. In order to identify susceptibility loci for SLE, we have performed genome scans with microsatellite markers covering the whole genome in families from Argentina, Italy, and Europe.