Equivalent responses to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs initiated at any time during the first 15 months after symptom onset in patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To evaluate responses by time to initiation of nonbiologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) in a DMARD-naive cohort of patients with early seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Subjects were categorized by the time from symptom onset to the first DMARD use (median 5.7 months, range 0.

Age adjustment corrects for apparent differences in erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein values at the onset of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis in younger and older patients.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of age adjustment on baseline erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with late-onset rheumatoid arthritis (LORA, age > or = 55 yrs) and younger-onset RA (YORA, age < 55 yrs) in a cohort with early, rheumatoid factor (RF) positive RA that has not received disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD).

Methods: In an ongoing prospective cohort study of 263 patients with seropositive RA who were enrolled within 14 months of symptom onset, baseline assessments included ESR, CRP, tender and swollen joint counts, and functional status. Westergren ESR determinations were performed in the rheumatologist's office or in a local laboratory using appropriate methods.

Elevated autoantibodies against oxidized palmitoyl arachidonoyl phosphocholine in patients with hypertension and myocardial infarction.

Oxidized 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (oxPAPC) is antigenic and an important epitope of oxLDL. This study validates the assay for autoantibodies against oxPAPC (anti-oxPAPC-Ab) and investigates the possible association between anti-oxPAPC-Ab and cardiovascular disease. A synthetic PAPC was oxidatively modified as an antigen for the anti-oxPAPC-Ab assay.

Molecular-based methods for quantifying HIV viral load.

Viral load quantitation has become the major prognostic marker for disease prognosis and outcome of antiretroviral therapy in the treatment of HIV-infected individuals. The three major methodologies for viral load quantitation: the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR; Amplicor HIV-1 Monitor Test, Roche Diagnostic Systems, Pleasanton, CA), the nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA; NucliSens HIV-1 QT Test, Organon Teknika, Bostel, The Netherlands); and a signal amplification methodology termed branchedchain DNA (bDNA) technique (Quantiplex HIV-1 RNA test, Bayer Diagnostics, Emeryville, CA) are briefly reviewed here.

Anti-idiotypes to oxidized LDL antibodies in intravenous immunoglobulin preparations--possible immunomodulation of atherosclerosis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) preparations contain anti-oxLDL and anti-anti-oxLDL antibodies.

Background: Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) is one of the major players in atherogenesis. IVIg can reduce atherosclerosis in experimental animal models.

Image analysis: a novel approach for the quantification of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody levels in patients with Wegener's granulomatosis.

Rises in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) directed against proteinase 3 (PR3) have predictive potential for a relapse of Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). To assess the value of image analysis for monitoring ANCA levels, we measured PR3-ANCA in a cohort of PR3-ANCA positive patients with WG that were prospectively followed in our clinic and compared findings with other techniques. ANCA levels were measured serially by quantitative image analysis, titration in indirect immunofluorescence (IIF), two different directly coated antigen-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), and a capture ELISA using a PR3-specific monoclonal antibody in 16 consecutive WG patients prior to a renal relapse, and in 16 age- and sex-matched patients with inactive WG.

Titers of antibody to common pathogens: relation to food-based interventions in rural Kenyan schoolchildren.

Background: Undernutrition is widely perceived to affect the development of an effective immune system.

Objective: We used a mini-analysis system to quantitate antibody titers and evaluate the sera of 200 Kenyan schoolchildren for antibodies to Helicobacter pylori [isotypes of immunoglobulins A (IgA), G (IgG), and M (IgM)], hepatitis A virus, rotavirus, tetanus toxoid (IgG), and a panel of recombinant malarial antigens (MSP1(19), MSP2, Ag512, MSP4, and MSP5).

Design: Children participated in a school-based feeding intervention with meat, milk, or nonanimal-source foods or in a nonintervention control group.

A chronic illness characterized by fatigue, neurologic and immunologic disorders, and active human herpesvirus type 6 infection.

Objective: To conduct neurologic, immunologic, and virologic studies in patients with a chronic debilitating illness of acute onset.

Design: Cohort study with comparison to matched, healthy control subjects.

Patients: We studied 259 patients who sought care in one medical practice; 29% of the patients were regularly bedridden or shut-in.