Plasmapheresis for systemic vasculitis.

Systemic vasculitides include a variety of, and numerous diseases. In 2012, the International CHAPEL HILL Consensus Conference (CHCC2012) led to a major reorganization of the classification of vasculitis, and this is still in wide use today. Although the results of plasmapheresis for individual diseases have been sometimes shown, there are few systematic reviews that discuss the effects along with vasculitis classification.

Effectiveness of neutralizing antibody cocktail in hemodialysis patients: a case series of 20 patients treated with or without REGN-COV2.

The number of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection continues to increase, and it has become a global pandemic. Although there is an urgent need to establish an effective treatment, the medication available for dialysis patients has been limited. An antibody cocktail containing two SARS-CoV-2-neutrarizing antibodies, REGN-COV2 has been granted special approval for COVID-19 in Japan, since July 2021, and this intravenous preparation can be used for dialysis patients.

Clinical features of psoriatic arthritis.

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is associated with decreased quality of life. As delayed diagnosis may lead to progressive joint destruction and long-term disability, the key clinical features of PsA should be recognizable to a wide range of clinicians to facilitate early diagnosis. In addition to assessment and identification of skin and nail lesions, which occur in up to 85% of those with musculoskeletal manifestations, clinicians should be aware of both the peripheral and axial manifestations of musculoskeletal disease reviewed here.

Extensive bilateral renal metastases of non-small cell lung carcinoma caused acute kidney injury resulting in end-stage renal disease.

Non-small cell lung carcinoma unusually causes clinically relevant metastases in the kidney while they are usually found only in autopsy. Acute kidney injury (AKI) due to direct metastatic invasion of a solid tumor is also very rare whereas it usually happens with hematologic malignancy, including lymphoma. We report a case with these two rarities.

Long-term efficacy of early infliximab-induced remission for refractory uveoretinitis associated with Behçet's disease.

Background: To evaluate long-term efficacy of infliximab (IFX) in refractory uveoretinitis associated with Behçet's disease (BD) depending on uveoretinitis duration.

Methods: Records of 16 patients with BD (32 eyes) followed for >5 years after starting IFX, were retrospectively reviewed. Long-term efficacy was compared between patients with short duration (≤18 months, n=7) versus long duration (>18 months, n=9) of their uveoretinitis prior to starting IFX.

Nephrotic syndrome due to minimal-change disease superimposed on anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody positive glomerulonephritis; a case report.

Background: The prognosis for renal function in anti-GBM glomerulonephritis (anti-GBM GN) is extremely poor, and when renal impairment progresses severely, it is difficult to expect improvement. In addition, it is also known that once the disease activity can be controlled by aggressive treatment, its recurrence is rare. We experienced an anti-GBM GN that improved from severe renal dysfunction and relapsed.

Elevated fecal calprotectin and lactoferrin associated with small intestinal lesions in patients with Behçet disease.

Background And Aims: Small intestinal lesions in patients with Behçet disease (BD) have a risk of perforation and hemorrhage requiring surgery. However, no screening strategy for such lesions has been established. We investigated small intestinal lesions in BD patients with video capsule endoscopy (VCE) and analyzed clinical characteristics to identify noninvasive biomarkers of such lesions.

Tenosynovitis with Rice Body Formation Due to Mycobacterium Intracellulare Infection After Initiation of Infliximab Therapy.

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis tenosynovitis is difficult to discriminate from non-tuberculous tenosynovitis on the basis of radiological and pathological findings. CASE REPORT A 74-year-old woman with a 4-year history of rheumatoid arthritis was referred to our hospital to undergo treatment for uncontrollable tenderness and swelling in her right third metacarpophalangeal joint, right wrist, and left knee joint. In the previous year, she underwent surgery at a local hospital for the swelling in her right metacarpophalangeal joint, the information of which was not known precisely, but the swelling subsided in due course after an operation.

Adult-onset Still's disease-like manifestation accompanied by the cancer recurrence after long-term resting state.

A 72-year-old woman presented 9 months ago with skin rash on her bilateral forearms, which was followed by intermittent high fever, and stiffness and swelling of her bilateral fingers. She was diagnosed with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (RA). She had a past history of breast cancer and had undergone breast preservation surgery 13 years previously.

Multiple aortic aneurysms complicated by a rupture in the systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report.

We report the case of a 61-year-old female who suffered from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AA). She was diagnosed to have SLE at 39 years of age, and was administrated steroids and prostaglandin E(2). From 52 years of age, AA, peripheral arterial occlusion, and multiple organ infarctions appeared repeatedly.

Alteration of redox state of human serum albumin before and after hemodialysis.

Background: Persistent hypoalbuminemia is a predictor of death in long-term maintenance hemodialysis patients, although cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death. A decreased serum antioxidant activity in maintenance hemodialysis patients may contribute to increased oxidative damage, and may be associated with accelerated atherosclerotic changes.

Methods: The aim of this study was to examine the redox state of human serum albumin in maintenance hemodialysis patients by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using a fluorescence detector.

[Secondary nephrotic syndrome due to collagen disease and vasculitis].

The most frequent and representative nephrotic syndrome associated with collagen disease is encountered in patients suffering from lupus nephritis. Lupus nephritis is a glomerulonephritis, which discloses various localizations of immune complexes in the endothelium, mesangium and subepithelium. In addition, vasculitides complicated by nephrotic syndrome also show the deposition of immune complexes in their glomeruli, such as Henoch-Schönlein nephritis and cryoglobulinemic nephritis.

Efficient isolation of cDNA clones encoding rheumatoid arthritis autoantigens by lambda phage surface display.

Bacteriophage lambda surface display was used to isolate cDNA clones encoding autoantigens recognized by synovial fluid (SF) or sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We constructed cDNA libraries from human synovial sarcoma cells and synovial tissue, using the surface display vector lambdafoo. The cDNA libraries were screened by affinity selection using 40 SF and 44 sera as probes separately immobilized in microtiter wells.