Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors as add-on therapy for knee synovitis that did not respond to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and other standard treatments in patients with peripheral spondyloarthritis (SpA). We retrospectively studied 27 SpA patients, in whom an anti-TNF agent was added for active peripheral arthritis with knee synovitis refractory to DMARDs and treatment with low-dose oral corticosteroids and/or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and intra-articular (IA) corticosteroids. As response of knee synovitis, were considered the absence of swelling, tenderness, and decreased range of movement in the clinical examination, after 4 months of anti-TNF therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMod Rheumatol
January 2013
We report a case of multifocal involvement of the central skeleton in a patient with long-term stage I pulmonary sarcoidosis who experienced sustained clinical remission of musculoskeletal symptoms while on methotrexate (MTX) alone. Concomitant normalization of laboratory tests [inflammatory markers and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) levels] was observed, and improvements were seen in follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine and bone scintigraphy. To date, there are no specific tools for the assessment of skeletal disease activity in sarcoidosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recommendations of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) for the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suggest a different therapeutic approach to methotrexate (MTX) resistance according to the presence or absence of poor prognostic factors. Retrospectively, in our patients with active early RA (disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28) > 3.2) that failed to respond to initial MTX monotherapy, we investigated whether leflunomide (LEF) addition had a different efficacy when associated with the presence or absence of poor prognostic factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are at increased risk of developing osteopenia and osteoporosis. Our study was designed to determine the degree of decreased bone density in steroid naïve young male patients with inflammatory bowel disease and to unmask possible risk factors.
Methods: Before the initiation of any treatment in young male patients aged 26 +/- 4.