Calcinosis in Rheumatic Disease Is Still an Unmet Need: A Retrospective Single-Center Study.

Patients with immune-mediated rheumatic disease-related calcinosis comprise a subgroup at risk of encountering a more severe clinical outcome. Early assessment is pivotal for preventing overall disease progression, as calcinosis is commonly overlooked until several years into the disease and is considered as a 'non-lethal' manifestation. This single-center retrospective study explored the prevalence, clinical associations, and impact on survival of subcutaneous calcinosis in 86 patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases (IMRD).

A clinical case of orbital inflammatory pseudotumor as the primary expression of eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis.

Eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis (EAF) is an infrequent and slowly progressive disease, represented by fibroinflammatory lesions of unknown origin, which mainly involves the sinonasal structures and upper respiratory tract. Occasionally, it can affect the orbit and ocular adnexa causing symptoms such as proptosis, globe displacement and periorbital edema. In very rare cases, ocular manifestation as an orbital inflammatory pseudotumor can be the primary localization of the disease.

A clinical case of recurrent episcleritis as the initial manifestation of granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a type of small-sized blood vessel vasculitis that predominantly affects the upper airways, lungs and kidneys and associates with the presence of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA). Nevertheless, any organ of the body can be affected by GPA, including the eye. Occasionally, ocular involvement can be the initial manifestation, thus representing an essential clue for the physician in the early diagnosis of the disease.

Usefulness of complex bacteriological and serological analysis in patients with spondyloarthritis.

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a group of associated chronic systemic inflammatory immune-mediated rheumatic diseases affecting axial and peripheral joints and entheses. The aim of the present study was to identify what parameters are useful to determine in order to better understand the correlation between the disease activity/severity and the microbiological results/immune status against intestinal and/or urogenital pathogens. Microorganisms known to trigger SpA, including .

A referable clinical pattern of spondyloarthritis-associated uveitis.

The aim of the study was to identify a clinical pattern of spondyloarthritis (SpA)-associated uveitis in order to facilitate proper rheumatologic referral by ophthalmologists. Demographic data were recorded and acute phase reactants were measured using standard methods between May and August 2017, for all adult patients (age > 18 years) presenting with acute uveitis (standardization of uveitis nomenclature). Afterwards, they were referred to a rheumatology clinic to be screened for the 2009 Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) classification criteria of SpA.

Advances in the treatment of uveitis in patients with spondyloarthritis - is it the time for biologic therapy?

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a heterogeneous group of diseases that includes ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), reactive arthritis (ReA), inflammatory bowel disease-associated spondyloarthritis (IBD-SpA), and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (unSpA). This group of diseases shares several clinical, imaging, and genetic features; the integration of these diseases in the group of SpA is needed for an early diagnosis and a prompt treatment. Uveitis is the most common extra-articular manifestation of SpA.

Does patients' opinion of remission in rheumatoid arthritis overlap ultrasound "true" remission? - a pilot study.

Aim: Patients describe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remission as the absence of any symptoms or return to normality. Residual ultrasound (US) synovitis was frequently described in remission cohorts in previous studies. US tenosynovitis evaluation and scoring seems to better follow clinical remission scores compared with synovitis in RA.

The relationship between disease activity, quality of life, and personality types in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis patients.

We hypothesized that clinical outcomes might be influenced by personality type (A, B, C, D) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). One hundred ninety-four patients (104 with RA, 90 with AS) participated in a questionnaire study. We evaluated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form 36 (SF-36), personality type A/B with the Jenkins Activity Survey, type C with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory Anger-in Scale, type D with the Type D Personality Scale, and disease activity with Disease Activity Score with 28 joints for RA and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index for AS.

The role of Vitamin D in immuno-inflammatory responses in Ankylosing Spondylitis patients with and without Acute Anterior Uveitis.

Abnormal Vitamin D (Vit D) level could have consequences on the immuno-inflammatory processes in Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of Vitamin D in the interplay between immune and inflammation effectors in AS associated-Acute Anterior Uveitis (AAU). 25-hydroxyvitamin D (Vit D), LL-37 peptide, IL-8 and Serum Amyloid A (SAA) were identified and quantified in the serum/ plasma of thirty-four AS patients [eleven AS patients presenting AAU (AAU AS patients) and twenty-three AS patients without AAU (wAAU AS patients)] and eighteen healthy individuals (Control) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Low vitamin D status in systemic sclerosis and the impact on disease phenotype.

Objective: Vitamin D has pleiotropic effects including immunomodulatory, cardioprotective, and antifibrotic properties and is thus able to modulate the three main links in scleroderma pathogenesis. The aim of the study was to evaluate the level of vitamin D in patients with systemic sclerosis and to analyze the associations between the concentration of vitamin D and the features of systemic sclerosis.

Material And Methods: Fifty-one consecutive patients were evaluated for visceral involvement, immunological profile, activity, severity scores, and quality of life.

Clinical Phenotype of Endothelial Dysfunction in Romanian Scleroderma Patients.

Objective: To identify the particularities of the clinical phenotype of endothelial dysfunction in a lot of Romanian patients from a reference center and compare it to data reported by international registries.

Material And Methods: 51 patients were included in a cross-sectional study. The patients were evaluated for the pattern of disease, main visceral involvement, serum markers of disease.

Socio-economical factors that influence the perception of quality of life in patients with osteoporosis.

The appearance of osteoporosis in elders and the growth of the frequency which it is diagnosed with as we approach patients who are older and older, makes this health problem very important in the societies in which a high number of persons reach old age. These societies, usually belonging to economically advanced jurisdictions, are the first interested in the way health expenses can balance the benefits of the quality of life acquired in these groups of population. The evaluation of the quality of life has become a very important process, which still raises methodological problems to the researchers.

Evaluation of adherence to anti-osteoporosis treatment from the socio-economic context.

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by the reduction of the bone mass and the modification of the bone architecture, which leads to the risk of fracture of the fragile bones, this being the main clinical consequence of the disease. At the same time, osteoporosis is not only a problem by itself, but it is very important from the point of view of the consequences it may produce. Among its consequences, fractures should be mentioned especially in elders, their presence finally leading to an important decrease in the quality of life or even to death.

Acute anterior uveitis and other extra-articular manifestations of spondyloarthritis.

Background: Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is associated with an array of peripheral manifestations. Our study aims to evaluate extra-articular manifestations of SpA in a Romanian academic clinical setting and to observe their associations with different disease measures.

Methods: The study was designed to note the extra-articular manifestations of SpA patients in a cross-sectional and retrospective manner.

Clinical Phenotype of Endothelial Dysfunction in a Lot of Romanian Scleroderma Patients.

Objectives: to identify the particularities of the clinical phenotype of endothelial dysfunction in a lot of Romanian patients from a reference center and compare it to data reported by international registries.

Materials And Methods: 51 patients were included in a cross sectional study. The patients were evaluated for the pattern of disease, main visceral involvement, serum markers of disease.

Dysregulation of anergy-related factors involved in regulatory T cells defects in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients: Rapamycin and Vitamin D efficacy in restoring regulatory T cells.

Aim: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients display dysfunctions in T cell activation and anergy. Therefore the aims of our study were to explore the expression of anergy-related factors in CD4 T cells in relationship with regulatory T cells (Tregs) frequency in SLE patients and to identify strategies to redress these defects.

Method: Casitas B-cell lymphoma b (Cbl-b) and 'gene related to anergy in lymphocytes' (GRAIL) proteins were analyzed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from SLE patients and healthy donors (HD) by immunoblotting.

Monitoring drug and antidrug levels: a rational approach in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with biologic agents who experience inadequate response while being on a stable biologic treatment.

Clinical response in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with biologic agents can be influenced by their pharmacokinetics and immunogenicity. The present study evaluated the concordance between serum drug and antidrug levels as well as the clinical response in RA patients treated with biological agents who experience their first disease exacerbation while being on a stable biologic treatment. 154 RA patients treated with rituximab (RTX), infliximab (IFX), adalimumab (ADL), or etanercept (ETN) were included.

Ankylosing spondylitis functional and activity indices in clinical practice.

Background: Clinicians have at hand several indices to evaluate disease activity and functionality in ankylosing spondylitis (AS), in order to evaluate the prognostic and the treatment of AS patients.

Objectives: to examine the relationship between functional and activity scores in AS; to note whether disease activity is associated with any clinical or laboratory variables.

Methods: the study included AS patients, classified according to the revised New York criteria; data recorded: demographics, disease duration, type of articular involvement, HLA B27 presence, history of uveitis, calculation of BASFI, BASDAI and ASDASCRP, quantification of inflammation markers.

Ultrasound in rheumatoid arthritis: volar versus dorsal synovitis evaluation and scoring.

Background: Assessment of synovitis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a major issue for a proper treatment administration; it has been proven that ultrasound (US) examination could be of valuable help and it is currently being investigated as a possible outcome measure for the disease. It is, though, of greatest importance to accurately establish the place of US scores among the already validated outcome measures, according to Outcome Measures for Rheumatoid Arthritis in Clinical Trials (OMERACT) filter. The present study is designed to compare the results of gray-scale ultrasound (GSUS) and Power Doppler ultrasound (PDUS) additive scores, separately calculated for volar and dorsal aspects of the hand, with physical examination, patient's evaluation of disease pain and global activity on Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) and traditional scores for disease activity assessment (DAS28, CDAI, SDAI, HAQ).

Peripheral blood lymphocytes analysis detects CD100/SEMA4D alteration in systemic sclerosis patients.

It was suggested that the immune system plays an important role at least in the amplification of the main elements in systemic sclerosis (SSc), an autoimmune disease with an incompletely elucidated pathogenesis. Elucidation of the mechanisms involved in the interaction between T and B cells, major players of the immune system, could contribute to a better understanding of some of clinical and pathological manifestations of SSc. Recently, abnormalities in Semaphorin 4D (Sema4D/CD100) or CD72, two contrareceptors involved in T and B cells cooperation, were associated with autoimmunity.

Neuromyelitis optica--complication or comorbidity in primary Sjögren's syndrome?

We report two cases of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) associated with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS), comparing the clinical and laboratory features of these predominant neurological patients and reporting their different outcome. NMO - a severe demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system - primarily affects the spinal cord and optic nerves, resulting in longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis and/or optic neuritis. Our patients had a late pSS diagnosis, due to the absence of sicca syndrome and specific Sjögren serology in the early stages of their diseases, when the neurological symptoms prevailed.

Platelet histogram indices and cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND; Previous studies reported the increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to the general population. However, the predictors for the development of CVD in patients with RA were not clearly established, and the role of thrombosis mechanisms was inconsistently characterized in these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the platelet histogram indices, as markers of platelet activation, in patients with RA with or without CVD.

Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies--activity markers in rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Immunological abnormalities in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) imply several antibodies, among which anti-cyclic cytrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) have the highest sensitivity and specificity. Their diagnostic and prognostic value in RA is well known, although their value as markers of the disease activity has not been established yet.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between anti-CCP antibodies and RA activity which eventually leads to the best treatment of choice.