Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Practical Review.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory disease, which primarily causes symmetric polyarthritis. An extrarticolar involvement is common, and the commonly involved organ is lungs. Although cardiac disease is responsible for most RA-related deaths, pulmonary disease is also a major contributor, accounting for ~10-20% of all mortality.

The macrophages in rheumatic diseases.

Macrophages belong to the innate immune system giving us protection against pathogens. However it is known that they are also involved in rheumatic diseases. Activated macrophages have two different phenotypes related to different stimuli: M1 (classically activated) and M2 (alternatively activated).

Successful treatment of a patient with giant cell vasculitis (horton arteritis) with tocilizumab a humanized anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of systemic vasculitis in adults, affecting preferentially medium-large size arteries. Here we report a case of a female with a diagnosis of GCA based on temporal artery biopsy, successfully treated with tocilizumab, a humanized anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody.

NK cell count as predictor of clinical response in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with rituximab.

Purpose: The relationship between antiCD20 therapy with rituximab and the lymphocytes phenotype in patients with rheumatoid arthritis was investigated, with an attempt to establish a relationship between commonly used clinical activity indices and variations in leukocyte count, in particular natural killer (NK) lymphocytes.

Methods: Patients with seropositive (cyclic citrullinated peptides and rheumatoid factor positive) rheumatoid arthritis (according to the American College of Rheumatology 1987 criteria) refractory to conventional and antitumor necrosis factor-alpha agents who were subsequently treated with rituximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody directed against CD20, were enrolled between January 2009 and September 2009. All subjects were treated with rituximab standard rheumatologic dose of 1.

Safety of etanercept in elderly subjects with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To report side effects seen in a clinical cohort of patients aged >65 years with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with the tumor necrosis factor-alpha TNF-alpha blocker etanercept and to compare the side effects rate with patients aged
Methods: All patients with RA that started etanercept and who were referred to our rheumatology unit from November 2005 to March 2009 were included in this study and prospectively followed to collect side effects related to therapy.

Results: ONE HUNDRED THREE PATIENTS WERE ENROLLED: 41 (37 females, 4 males) aged >65 years and 62 (40 females, 22 males) aged <65 years.