The choice of treatment and the motivations behind it impact clinical outcomes among patients with adequate control of their rheumatic disease: A real-life study.

Introduction: Many factors influence how doctors make treatment decisions. The study compares the outcomes of patients with rheumatic diseases and adequate control (AC) whose treating rheumatologists prescribed their first choice of treatment (FCHO) versus the second choice (SCHO) and the motivations behind them. It also investigates the motivations associated with FCHO.

Assessment of enthesopathy in conventional pelvis radiography: Another tool for spondyloarthritis diagnosis beyond sacroiliitis.

Introduction/objectives: Enthesitis is a cardinal feature of spondylarthritis (SpA), and the pelvis is a common site of enthesitis. This study aimed to establish the association between pelvic enthesis involvement on pelvic X-ray and SpA diagnosis through a radiographic enthesis index (REI) and to assess the reliability and accuracy of this REI.

Materials And Methods: The participants were SpA patients and a control group composed of patients with chronic lumbar pain without SpA.

The burden of the most common rheumatic disease in Colombia.

Background: Estimating the burden of rheumatic diseases (RDs) requires proper evaluation of its lethal and nonlethal consequences. In Colombia, it is possible to find local data and Global Burden of Disease (GBD) reports that collect information from varied contexts and apply complex statistical models, but no on-site estimations are available.

Methods: This was a descriptive study on the burden of RD based on occurrence and mortality data in the general population during 2015, including information and prevalence estimations from the Community Oriented Program for the Control of Rheumatic Diseases (COPCORD) study.

Association of significant risk perception with the use of complementary and alternative medicine: A cross-sectional study in Hispanic patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Risk perception (RP) describes patient´s judgment of the likelihood of experiencing something unpleasant, and has been associated to the adoption of health behaviors. Current rheumatoid arthritis (RA) guidelines recommend early and intensive treatment, although patients also commonly use Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). We aimed to investigate if significant RP was associated to CAM use in Hispanic RA outpatients and to describe additional associated factors.

TLR expression in peripheral monocyte subsets of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: association with clinical and immunological features.

Background: Monocytes and toll-like receptors (TLR) have been found in the inflammatory infiltrate of muscle biopsies in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), suggesting an important role of these cells in the pathogenesis of myositis. The monocyte subsets, their TLR expression in peripheral blood and their relationship with the clinical characteristics of patients with IIM has not been addressed.

Methods: We recruited 45 patients with IIM diagnosis and 15 age and sex-adjusted healthy controls.

Epidemiologic Profile of Erectile Dysfunction in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: The Latin American Landscape.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED), as well as associated demographic and clinical features, in men with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), by means of a systematic, standardized evaluation.

Methods: We performed a transversal study in 8 tertiary care centers in Latin America. We included male patients ≥ 16 years who fulfilled ≥ 4 American College of Rheumatology criteria for SLE and had regular sexual activity, and evaluated them with the International Index of Erectile Function-5 questionnaire.

Accuracy and reliability of the sensory test performed using the laryngopharyngeal endoscopic esthesiometer and rangefinder in patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnoea hypopnoea: protocol for a prospective double-blinded, randomised, exploratory study.

Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea hypopnoea syndrome (OSA) might have varying degrees of laryngopharyngeal mechanical hyposensitivity that might impair the brain's capacity to prevent airway collapse during sleep. However, this knowledge about sensory compromises in OSA comes from studies performed using methods with little evidence of their validity. Hence, the purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and accuracy of the measurement of laryngopharyngeal mechanosensitivity in patients with OSA using a recently developed laryngopharyngeal endoscopic esthesiometer and rangefinder (LPEER).