Experience With the Use of Rituximab for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis in a Tertiary Hospital in Spain: RITAR Study.

Background/objective: There is evidence supporting that there are no relevant clinical differences between dosing rituximab 1000 mg or 2000 mg per cycle in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in clinical trials, and low-dose cycles seem to have a better safety profile. Our objective was to describe the pattern of use of rituximab in real-life practice conditions.

Methods: Rituximab for RA in clinical practice (RITAR) study is a retrospective cohort study from 2005 to 2015.

Sustained remission after long-term biological therapy in patients with large vessel vasculitis: an analysis of ten cases.

Objectives: To describe the results obtained in clinical practice with the use of biological therapy (BT) in patients diagnosed with Takayasu arteritis (TA) and giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Methods: Retrospective single center study of TA/GCA patients who received BT (infliximab [IFX], etanercept [ETN] and tocilizumab [TCZ]). In TA, active disease was defined according to a previous National Institutes of Health study.

Interleukin 15 levels in serum may predict a severe disease course in patients with early arthritis.

Background: Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is thought to be involved in the physiopathological mechanisms of RA and it can be detected in the serum and the synovial fluid of inflamed joints in patients with RA but not in patients with osteoarthritis or other inflammatory joint diseases. Therefore, the objective of this work is to analyse whether serum IL-15 (sIL-15) levels serve as a biomarker of disease severity in patients with early arthritis (EA).

Methodology And Results: Data from 190 patients in an EA register were analysed (77.

Are the C-reactive protein values and erythrocyte sedimentation rate equivalent when estimating the 28-joint disease activity score in rheumatoid arthritis?

Unlabelled: A formula for calculating disease activity score with 28 joint counts (DAS28) with C-reactive protein (CRP) instead of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) has been proposed.

Objective: Here we analyze the factors that contribute to the differences in the DAS28 when calculated using either the ESR (DAS28-ESR) or the CRP values (DAS28-CRP).

Methods: We analyzed the data from 587 visits made by 220 patients with early arthritis.

Vascular gene transfer driven by endoglin and ICAM-2 endothelial-specific promoters.

The involvement of the vascular endothelium in a large number of diseases supports the importance of vascular-specific gene delivery for their treatment. The hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia type 1 is an example of a vascular inherited disease (OMIM 187300). This is an autosomal dominant vascular disorder originated by mutations in the endoglin gene and associated with frequent epistaxis, telangiectases, gastrointestinal bleedings, and arteriovenous malformations in brain, lung and liver.