Regulatory reliance pathways during health emergencies: enabling timely authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America.

Objectives: To map the timing and nature of regulatory reliance pathways used to authorize COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America.

Methods: An observational study was conducted assessing the characteristics of all COVID-19 vaccine authorizations in Latin America. For every authorization it was determined whether reliance was used in the authorization process.

Spontaneous arthritis in MRL/lpr mice is aggravated by Staphylococcus aureus and ameliorated by Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infections.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects human beings worldwide. Infections have been associated to autoimmune diseases because their ability to induce a dominant cytokine response. Joint inflammation has been related to Th1 response because they induce high expression of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-1, IFN-gamma.

Validation of the Health Assessment Questionnaire disability index in patients with gout.

Objective: To assess the psychometric properties of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability index (DI) in patients with gout.

Methods: This study was conducted in a multicenter cohort of patients with gout whose data were collected at baseline (time 0) and 6 months later (time 6). Reliability was assessed by test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient).

The usefulness of laboratory tests in the early assessment of severity of acute pancreatitis.

Acute pancreatitis is a disorder that affects approximately 200,000 individuals in the U.S. annually.

Reactive arthritis: newer developments.

Reactive arthritis (ReA) is characterized by an aseptic inflammatory articular involvement occurring in a genetically predisposed individual secondary to an infectious process localized outside the joint. ReA usually refers to an acute or insidious oligoarthritis process after enteric (enteroarthritis) or urogenital (uroarthritis) infection. Conventional antirheumatic therapeutic modalities based on nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs, sulfasalazine, and steroids are effective in the majority of patients.