Giant cell aortitis masquerading as intramural hematoma.

Giant cell aortitis is a rare cause of acute aortic syndrome. We describe the cases of two patients who had presented with chest pain, hypertension, and computed tomography angiographic evidence of mural thickening typical of thoracic aortic intramural hematoma. Although the patients' symptoms improved with hypertension control, elevated inflammatory markers and persistent fever to 103°F raised concern for an inflammatory etiology.

PTPN22 Variant R620W Is Associated With Reduced Toll-like Receptor 7-Induced Type I Interferon in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Objective: Protein tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor type 22 (PTPN22) is associated with an increased risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). PTPN22 encodes Lyp, and a disease-associated coding variant bears an R620W substitution (LypW). LypW carriage is associated with impaired production of type I interferon (IFN) by myeloid cells following Toll-like receptor (TLR) engagement.

Omega-3 in SLE: a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial of endothelial dysfunction and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Accelerated atherosclerosis remains a major cause of death in late systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Omega-3 has been reported to have benefit for endothelial dysfunction, one of the earliest stages of atherosclerosis, and to reduce disease activity in SLE. We performed a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial to examine the effect of Omega-3 on endothelial function, disease activity, inflammatory markers and lipids in SLE.