Publications by authors named "JoAnn Vega"
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on understanding how complement activation occurs in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) but without other autoimmune diseases, analyzing various complement activation markers.
- Researchers found that a considerable portion of the aPL-positive patients had abnormal levels of cell-bound complement activation products (CB-CAPs), indicating different profiles and clinical manifestations of the disease.
- The results suggest that CB-CAPs might be better indicators of disease activity and thrombosis risk than traditional C3/C4 complement levels in these patients.
Methods: We identified 20 adult patients with UCTD enrolled in the UCTD and Overlap Registry at our tertiary care level hospital. A licensed clinical social worker administered a 30-minute semistructured interview by telephone. The standardized questionnaire consisted of 14 open-ended questions on UCTD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the pregnancy experiences of women receiving care in the division of rheumatology at a major academic center in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A web-based COVID-19 survey was emailed to 26,045 patients who were followed in the division of rheumatology at a single center in New York City. Women ages 18-50 years were asked about their pregnancy.
Objective: This study aimed to use cluster analysis (CA) to identify different clinical phenotypes among antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL)-positive patients.
Methods: The Alliance for Clinical Trials and International Networking (APS ACTION) Registry includes persistently positive aPL of any isotype based on the Sydney antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) classification criteria. We performed CA on the baseline characteristics collected retrospectively at the time of the registry entry of the first 500 patients included in the registry.
Background: Variability remains a challenge in lupus anticoagulant (LA) testing.
Objective: To validate LA test performance between Antiphospholipid Syndrome Alliance for Clinical Trials and International Networking (APS ACTION) Core laboratories and examine agreement in LA status between Core and local/hospital laboratories contributing patients to this prospective registry.
Methods: Five Core laboratories used the same reagents, analyzer type, protocols, and characterized samples for LA validation.
Objective: To determine if proinflammatory and prothrombotic biomarkers are differentially upregulated in persistently antiphospholipid antibody (aPL)-positive patients, and to examine the effects of fluvastatin on these biomarkers.
Methods: Four groups of patients (age 18-65) were recruited: (a) primary antiphospholipid syndrome; (b) systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) (SLE/APS); (c) persistent aPL positivity without SLE or APS (Primary aPL); and (d) persistent aPL positivity with SLE but no APS (SLE/aPL). The frequency-matched control group, used for baseline data comparison, was identified from a databank of healthy persons.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the safety of rituximab in antiphospholipid antibody (aPL)-positive patients with non-criteria manifestations of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The secondary objectives were to evaluate the effect of rituximab on the aPL profile and to evaluate the efficacy of rituximab treatment for non-criteria manifestations of APS.
Methods: In this 12-month, phase II pilot study, adult aPL-positive patients with thrombocytopenia, cardiac valve disease, skin ulcer, aPL nephropathy, and/or cognitive dysfunction received 2 doses of rituximab (1,000 mg) on days 1 and 15.