Tumor Necrosis Factor Inhibitor Monotherapy Versus Combination Therapy for the Treatment of Psoriatic Arthritis: Combined Analysis of European Biologics Databases.

Objective: To investigate whether tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) combination therapy with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD) is more effective for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and/or improves TNFi drug survival compared to TNFi monotherapy.

Methods: Five PsA biologics cohorts were investigated between 2000 and 2015: the ATTRA registry (Czech Republic); the Swiss Clinical Quality Management PsA registry; the Hellenic Registry of Biologics Therapies (Greece); the University of Bari PsA biologics database (Italy); and the Bath PsA cohort (UK). Drug persistence was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and equality of survival using log-rank tests.

Cross-sectional study of patients with axial spondyloarthritis fulfilling imaging arm of ASAS classification criteria: baseline clinical characteristics and subset differences in a single-centre cohort.

Objective: This study compared demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics between patients with radiographic and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA).

Methods: In this single-centre cross-sectional study, a total of 246 patients with axSpA fulfilling the imaging arm of Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society classification criteria were recruited. A total of 140 patients were diagnosed as non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), and 106 patients had ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

Circulating S100 proteins effectively discriminate SLE patients from healthy controls: a cross-sectional study.

S100 proteins are currently being investigated as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of several cancers and inflammatory diseases. The aims of this study were to analyse the plasma levels of S100A4, S100A8/9 and S100A12 in patients with incomplete systemic lupus erythematosus (iSLE), in patients with established SLE and in healthy controls (HCs) and to investigate the potential utility of the S100 proteins as diagnostic or activity-specific biomarkers in SLE. Plasma levels were measured by ELISA in a cross-sectional cohort study of 44 patients with SLE, 8 patients with iSLE and 43 HCs.

The relationship between synovitis quantified by an ultrasound 7-joint inflammation score and physical disability in rheumatoid arthritis - a cohort study.

Background: Restoring normal physical functioning is a major therapeutic aim in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is unknown, whether the extent of synovial inflammation quantified by musculoskeletal ultrasound (US) can predict current or future capacity for physical functioning. To answer this question we investigated the longitudinal relationship between physical function assessed by the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and the German 7-joint ultrasound score (US7S) in a prospective cohort of patients with RA.