Risk Factors, Manifestation, and Awareness of Osteoporosis among Patients of Various Specialists in Switzerland: Results of a National Survey.

Osteoporosis is the most common chronic metabolic bone disease, known to be underdiagnosed and undertreated in parts of the Swiss population. Due to expected rise in new fragility fractures, adequate awareness of associated risk factors and diagnostic and therapeutic options will be essential for the management of osteoporosis. We therefore explored these aspects in a nationwide survey of Swiss specialists and their patients.

Current practice of transitional care for adolescents and young adults in Swiss paediatric and adult rheumatology centres.

Background: About half of all children with rheumatic diseases need continuous medical care during adolescence and adulthood. A good transition into adult rheumatology is essential. Guidelines for a structured transition process have therefore been recommended by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and the Paediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS).

Giant Cell Arteritis among Fevers of Unknown Origin (FUO): An Atypical Presentation.

Unlabelled: Giant cell arteritis (GCA), or Horton's arteritis, presenting solely as fever is very rare. Usually, it manifests with typical features such as visual problems, headache and jaw claudication, or it can be associated with polymyalgia rheumatica. We describe the case of a patient with GCA who presented only with prolonged fever, the cause of which was not determined by diagnostic tests.

Isolated Knee Arthritis as Early and Only Symptom of Whipple's Disease.

We report a case of isolated Whipple's disease involving the knee of a 64-year-old female patient who presented recurrent monoarthritis whose origin was not clear. Initially, the cause of the gradually invalidating symptoms was related to a meniscal lesion and a diffuse minor grade chondropathy, but pain and functional impairment suggested that more exams were needed. Biopsies were performed during arthroscopy.

Differential influence of maternal and fetal pregnancy factors on the in-vitro induction of human regulatory T cells: a preliminary study.

Problem: Given the important role of regulatory T cells (Treg) for successful pregnancy, the ability of soluble maternal and fetal pregnancy factors to induce human Treg was investigated.

Method Of Study: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or isolated CD4+CD25‒ cells were cultured in the presence of pooled second or third trimester pregnancy sera, steroid hormones or supernatants from placental explants, and the numbers and function of induced CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Treg were analysed.

Results: Third trimester pregnancy sera and supernatants of early placental explants, but not sex steroid hormones, induced an increase of Tregs from PBMCs.