Publications by authors named "D Vassilopoulos"
Infections in psoriatic arthritis: association with treatment.
Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis
October 2024
Article Synopsis
- - Serious infections (SIs) are a major concern for patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), especially when treated with various medications, including traditional options like methotrexate and newer biologics such as IL-23 inhibitors and JAK inhibitors.
- - While the overall incidence of SIs in PsA patients is lower than that in rheumatoid arthritis patients, there are ongoing safety concerns, particularly with the potential reactivation of latent infections like tuberculosis when using TNF inhibitors, which can be managed with proper screening.
- - Newer treatments like IL-23 inhibitors show no increase in common infection risk, but JAK inhibitors are associated with an elevated risk of herpes zoster, highlighting the importance of monitoring and preventive measures in treatment
Increased prevalence of inflammatory arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis, during 2020-2023 versus 2016-2019 in a Nation-Wide Cohort Study.
Rheumatol Int
December 2024
Article Synopsis
- A study in Greece looked at how common autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD) are over time, comparing the years 2016-2019 to 2020-2023, including the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.* ! -
- The results showed that diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis became more common during the pandemic period, especially among younger and older adults.* ! -
- There was a big increase in the number of people with these diseases, so Greece will need more resources like doctors and medicine to help all these patients.* !
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of conventional immunosuppressive treatments in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) by assessing response rates over one year and identifying predictors of non-response.
- Involving 140 patients, the research found that around 69.2% achieved a positive response by 12 months, although 20% needed changes in their treatment due to insufficient progress.
- Increased chronicity at the start was linked to a higher chance of not responding to treatment, indicating that both chronicity and histological activity are important factors influencing patient outcomes.
Novel Treatments in Refractory Recurrent Pericarditis.
Pharmaceuticals (Basel)
August 2024
Refractory recurrent pericarditis is a troublesome condition that severely impairs the quality of life of affected patients and significantly increases healthcare spending. Until recently, therapeutic options included only a few medications and most of the patients resorted to chronic glucocorticoid treatment with steroid dependence. In the most recent decade, the introduction of interleukin-1 blockers in clinical practice has revolutionized the treatment of glucocorticoid-dependent and colchicine-resistant recurrent pericarditis due to their excellent efficacy and good safety profile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: There are limited real-life data regarding the efficacy and safety of rituximab (RTX) as a remission-maintenance agent in microscopic-polyangiitis (ΜPA) and granulomatosis-with-polyangiitis (GPA). We aimed to estimate the incidence and risk factors for relapses, as well serious-adverse-events (SAEs) in MPA/GPA patients during RTX-maintenance.
Methods: Retrospective cohort of newly-diagnosed/relapsing GPA/MPA patients who received RTX-maintenance (≥1 RTX-cycle, ≥6 months follow-up) following complete-remission (Birmingham-Vasculitis-Activity-Score-version-3 = 0 plus prednisolone ≤7.