Objectives: The need for glucocorticoid-sparing drugs (GCSD) remains an important issue and is an unmet need in the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). We therefore aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of methotrexate (MTX) and of leflunomide (LEF) in daily clinical practice in PMR patients from Argentina.
Methods: A multicentre and observational study (medical records review) of PMR patients seen between 2007 and 2023, who had at least three months of follow-up after starting a GCSD, either MTX or LEF, was performed.
Ann Rheum Dis
June 2024
Objectives: To assess, in spondyloarthritis (SpA), the discriminative value of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) ultrasound lesions of enthesitis and their associations with clinical features in this population.
Methods: In this multicentre study involving 20 rheumatology centres, clinical and ultrasound examinations of the lower limb large entheses were performed in 413 patients with SpA (axial SpA and psoriatic arthritis) and 282 disease controls (osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia). 'Active enthesitis' was defined as (1) power Doppler (PD) at the enthesis grade ≥1 plus entheseal thickening and/or hypoechoic areas, or (2) PD grade >1 (independent of the presence of entheseal thickening and/or hypoechoic areas).
Objective: To evaluate the association between patients' characteristics and disease activity in an Argentine lupus registry.
Methods: Cross-sectional study. Disease activity was stratified into: Remission off-treatment: SLEDAI = 0, without prednisone and immunosuppressive drugs.
Objective: Synovitis and tenosynovitis are present in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), both as joint pain and/or inflammation, making them difficult to detect on physical examination. Although ultrasonography (US) allows for discrimination of the 2 entities, only definitions and scoring of synovitis in children have been established. This study was undertaken to produce consensus-based US definitions of tenosynovitis in JIA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To describe skin involvement (SI) in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at onset and during follow-up of the disease and to determine factors associated with SI at lupus diagnosis.
Materials And Methods: Retrospective, observational, and descriptive study, from a single centre in patients diagnosed with SLE (ACR 1982-97 or SLICC 2012 criteria). The modified Gilliam classification for SI was used.
J Clin Rheumatol
March 2023
Background/objective: This study aims to describe the course and to identify poor prognostic factors of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with rheumatic diseases.
Methods: Patients ≥ 18 years of age, with a rheumatic disease, who had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were consecutively included by major rheumatology centers from Argentina, in the national, observational SAR-COVID registry between August 13, 2020 and July 31, 2021. Hospitalization, oxygen requirement, and death were considered poor COVID-19 outcomes.
Objectives: To investigate the reliability of the OMERACT US Task Force definition of US enthesitis in SpA.
Methods: In this web exercise, based on the evaluation of 101 images and 39 clips of the main entheses of the lower limbs, the elementary components included in the OMERACT definition of US enthesitis in SpA (hypoechoic areas, entheseal thickening, power Doppler signal at the enthesis, enthesophytes/calcifications, bone erosions) were assessed by 47 rheumatologists from 37 rheumatology centres in 15 countries. Inter- and intra-observer reliability of the US components of enthesitis was calculated using Light's kappa, Cohen's kappa, Prevalence And Bias Adjusted Kappa (PABAK) and their 95% CIs.
Objectives: To measure with US the intima-media thickness (IMT) of temporal (superficial, parietal and frontal branches) and axillary arteries in subjects without a diagnosis of GCA and/or PMR with different cardiovascular (CV) risk; and to assess the performance of previously proposed cut-off values for normal IMT.
Methods: Subjects ≥ 50 years without a diagnosis of GCA or PMR were included. Bilateral US of the temporal arteries, including the frontal and parietal branches, and axillary arteries was performed by two sonographers using a 10-22 MHz and 6-18 MHz probe.
J Clin Rheumatol
September 2021
Background: Interest in ultrasound (US) as a diagnostic tool in spondyloarthritis is growing. Although the literature has provided detailed description of normal lower-limb entheses for adults and children, validated normal US findings of the pediatric upper-limb (UL) entheses are lacking.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the sonographic characteristics of the UL entheses in healthy children to provide a basis for assessing pathologic findings in children with rheumatic diseases.
Background/objective: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is preceded by psoriasis in approximately 80% of cases. Dermatologists are pivotal for early detection. It is important to have simple tools that allow the detection of PsA in patients with skin psoriasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: There are different imaging techniques to assess the parotid glands (i.e., sialography, salivary gland scintigraphy) in patients with Sjögren syndrome (SS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To find out the factors that are associated with sustained remission measured by DAS28 and boolean ACR EULAR 2011 criteria at the time of diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
Materials And Methods: Medical records of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in sustained remission according to DAS28 were reviewed. They were compared with patients who did not achieved values of DAS28<2.