Drugs or disease: evaluating salivary function in RA patients.

Oral complications of RA may include temporomandibular joint disorders, mucosa alterations and symptoms of dry mouth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the salivary gland function of subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) comparing it to healthy controls. Subjects with other systemic conditions known to affect salivary functions were excluded.

[Colonoscopic evaluation in patients with ankylosing spondylitis].

Introduction: Patients with ankylosing spondylitis can have intestinal inflammatory lesions, thus the use of colonoscopy for such patients should be defined.

Objectives: To assess the gross intestinal colonoscopic changes and microscopic histopathologic findings of patients with ankylosing spondylitis; to correlate the colonoscopic and histopathologic findings; and to study the relationship of the histopathologic findings with extra-articular manifestations of the disease, HLA-B27, BASFI and BASDAI.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 22 patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

Association between juvenile idiopathic arthritis and osteogenesis imperfecta: case report.

The authors report a rare association case of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) in a 53 years-old female patient, present a literature review and discuss the radiological aspects of the temporo-mandibular joint involvement. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of JIA an OI association.

HLA-B27 frequency in a group of patients with psoriatic arthritis.

Background: HLA-B27 is associated with spondyloarthritis, a group of diseases that includes psoriatic arthritis.

Objectives: To describe the HLA-B27 frequency in a group of Brazilian patients with psoriatic arthritis and correlate its presence or absence with their clinical manifestations.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 44 psoriatic arthritis patients of a Rheumatology clinic.

Reactive haemophagocytic syndrome in a systemic lupus erythematosus patient: case report.

The macrophagic syndrome or reactive haemophagocytic syndrome (RHS) is a complication resulting from systemic inflammatory diseases and may also be related to malign neoplasias, immunodeficiencies and to a variety of infections caused by virus, bacteria, and fungus. It is characterized by an excessive activation of macrophages and histiocytes along with intense hemophagocytosis in bone marrow and reticulum-endothelial system, causing the phagocytosis of erythrocytes, leukocytes, platelets, and their precursors. The clinical manifestations are fever, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenomegalies, neurological involvement, variable degrees of cytopenias, hyperferritinemia, liver disorders, intravascular coagulation, and multiple organs failure.

Bilateral osteochondrosis of lateral femoral condyles: case report and literature review.

Osteochondrosis is an injury on subchondral ossification with predominance of immature skeleton and whose etiology remains unknown. It may affect the femoral condyles (usually the medial condyle) and the involvement is mostly unilateral. The authors draw the attention to this usually late diagnosis due to its infrequent occurrence and report a child's rare case of bilateral osteochondrosis on lateral femoral condyles, stressing that just one similar case has been described in the orthopaedic literature up to the present time.

Psoriatic arthritis: a clinical entity distinct from psoriasis?

Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are complex and heterogeneous clinical entities, whose presentations comprise multiple combinations of subtypes. There are doubts even if they are distinct entities or merely variants of the same disease. Epidemiologically, psoriasis can be considered a common disease because it affects about 2% of the world population.

Evaluation of endothelial function in patients with limited systemic sclerosis by use of brachial artery Doppler ultrasound.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the brachial artery endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent dilating responses in patients with limited systemic sclerosis (LSSc) with those of healthy subjects of the same gender, age and color.

Methods: Twenty adult, non-obese, non-smoker, non-diabetic, non-dyslipidemic, and non-hypertensive women, who fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology criteria for the diagnosis of SSc, were submitted to right brachial artery Doppler ultrasound. The vasodilating responses were analyzed as follows: the endothelium-dependent dilating response, after a 5-minute ischemia in the right arm; and the endothelium-independent dilating response, after administering 300 mcg of nitroglycerin (NTG) sublingually.

CysLT1 receptor inhibition in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon: capillaroscopic evidence of the role of leukotriene.

Objective: To assess the effect of the leukotriene receptor inhibitor (montelukast) on vascular alterations in fingers of patients with Raynaud's phenomenon.

Methods: Patients with Raynaud's phenomenon of the hands secondary to inflammatory connective tissue disease were selected, and those with the following characteristics were excluded: smokers, arterial hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. All patients maintained their previous medications and started the use of montelukast, 10 mg/day, for 60 days.

Oral events related to low-dose methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Low-dose methotrexate (MTX) is frequently used for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). High doses of MTX frequently produce side effects. The aim of this study was to explore oral complications of low-dose MTX therapy in a population of RA patients.

Use of 99mTc-anti-CD3 scintigraphy in the differential diagnosis of rheumatic diseases.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the use of anti-CD3, labelled with technetium-99m scintigraphy, for evaluating the joints of patients with RA, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), OA and gouty arthritis, and to establish the diagnosis parameters for each disease.

Methods: We evaluated 2044 joints from 77 patients with rheumatic diseases. The clinical evaluation consisted of laboratory assays; examination for joint inflammation (pain and/or oedema); and for patients with RA, the disease activity score of 28 joints.

Bone mineral density at 45 years of age, before menopause.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to investigate variations in bone mineral density values in 45-year-old women from a community sample in the City of Rio de Janeiro, in the same-name Brazilian state, and to compare them with US norms and international standards.

Design: In this cohort study, the age of 45 years is significant for the design, since clinical observation in this community indicates that it is approximately 5 years before menopause can be confirmed, thus preceding the typical postmenopause acceleration of the rate of bone loss. Nine hundred fifty-nine such women volunteered to participate in the investigation, conducted in 2 Rio de Janeiro teaching hospitals.

Determinants of risk for venous and arterial thrombosis in primary antiphospholipid syndrome and in antiphospholipid syndrome with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is characterized by thrombosis (venous and arterial) and pregnancy loss in conjunction with the lupus anticoagulant, IgG or IgM anticardiolipin, or IgG or IgM anti-beta2-glycoprotein I. In most series, only a minority of patients with antiphospholipid antibodies develop a clinical manifestation.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of consecutive patients in the Hopkins Lupus Center was performed.