Health-related quality of life in patients with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis in the era of biologics: data from the German biologics register RABBIT.

Objective: To compare the 24-month course of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with long-standing RA treated with a conventional synthetic (cs) or a first, second or third biologic (b) DMARD in daily rheumatological care.

Methods: Patients enrolled in the German biologics register RABBIT who were observed over at least 12 months were stratified according to the nth bDMARD started at enrolment. HRQoL was captured by the SF36 health survey.

Treatment benefit or survival of the fittest: what drives the time-dependent decrease in serious infection rates under TNF inhibition and what does this imply for the individual patient?

Objective: To examine the risk of serious infection conveyed by tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) inhibitors in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Data from patients with RA enrolled in the German biologics register RABBIT were used for analysis. Baseline patient characteristics, time-varying risk factors (treatment changes, functional capacity) and selection processes caused by dropout, death or switching to non-anti-TNF treatment were taken into account to estimate the adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR(adj)) of serious infection during treatment with TNF inhibitors compared with non-biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug treatment.

Successful use of anakinra to treat refractory Schnitzler's syndrome.

Schnitzler's syndrome is a rather rare disease which may appear in a rheumatologist's office because patients often report rheumatic symptoms with joint, bone and muscle pain. However, it is characterized by chronic urticaria, recurrent fever, liver and spleen enlargement, osteosclerosis, and lymphadenopathy, in conjunction with a serum IgM M component. A patient who had been treated with relatively high doses of corticosteroids for 10 years with insufficient response was treated with the IL-1 receptor antagonist anakinra, this led to a complete resolution of symptoms.

["Thus it was rendered to us great honour and complaisance." On the history of Ottheinrich of Pfalz-Neuburg].

One of the most scintillant German princes of the 16th century was Count Palatine Ottheinrich (1502-1559). Even while he was still alive, he became a legend. Ottheinrich was the first reigning prince of the principality of Neuburg on the Danube, which, as a result of the so-called Landshut succession war, was founded in 1505.