Long term treatment with abatacept or tocilizumab does not increase Epstein-Barr virus load in patients with rheumatoid arthritis - A three years retrospective study.

Background: Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a widely disseminated lymphotropic herpes virus implicated in benign and malignant disorders. In transplant patients, immunosuppressive drugs (cyclosporine) diminish control of EBV replication, potentially leading to lymphoproliferative disorders (LPD). Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have impaired control of EBV infection and have EBV load ten times higher than controls.

Antinuclear Antibodies in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis Treated or Not with Biologics.

Background: With the emergence of biotherapies, accurate diagnosis in early arthritis is needed. At this time, there is no biological marker of psoriatic arthritis.

Objective: To test whether antinuclear antibodies (ANA) can be used as a diagnostic tool in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), we evaluated the prevalence of ANA in biologic-naïve PsA patients and in healthy blood donors.

Whole-Body (18) FDG-PET in an Arthritis Paraneoplastic Syndrome Revealed an Underlying Hematological Neoplasm.

We showed the first image of (18)FDG-PET, which leads to a diagnosis of lymphoma in an atypical polyarthritis. About 4% of patients with lymphoma or leukemia suffered from rheumatologic paraneoplastic symptoms like arthralgia and about 10% of the patients with rheumatologic or neurologic clinical symptoms develop a solid cancer or hematological neoplasm. (18)FDG-PET is an interesting exam to identify an underlying malignancy when a paraneoplastic syndrome is suspected; it can detect the primitive lesion and/or the metastasis lesions.

Can we improve the diagnosis of spondyloarthritis in patients with uncertain diagnosis? The EchoSpA prospective multicenter French cohort.

Unlabelled: Power Doppler ultrasound (PDUS) has proved to be a highly sensitive tool for assessing enthesitis in spondyloarthritis (SpA). In patients with a suspected SpA, diagnosis could be improved by detecting enthesitis with PDUS.

Objective: To evaluate the performance of PDUS for the diagnosis of SpA alone or combined with other clinical, laboratory and imaging findings in patients consulting for a suspected SpA.

Outcomes in recent-onset inflammatory polyarthritis differ according to initial titers, persistence over time, and specificity of the autoantibodies.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the predictive value of initial titers and subsequent variations of 3 rheumatoid arthritis–associated antibodies for outcomes at 30 months in patients with recent-onset polyarthritis.

Methods: IgM rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-Sa (citrullinated vimentin) antibodies, anti– cyclic citrullinated peptide 2 (anti–CCP-2) antibodies, modified Health Assessment Questionnaire score, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints, and Sharp/van der Heijde radiologic scores were determined at baseline and at 18 and 30 months in a cohort of consecutive HLA–DR-typed treated patients with recent-onset polyarthritis aiming at remission.

Results: At inclusion, 113 (44.