The Rise and Fall of Hydroxychloroquine with the COVID-19 Pandemic: Narrative Review of Selected Data.

Since the first outbreak of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) in January 2020, the medical community has been pursuing effective countermeasures. Early in the pandemic, several small clinical and in vitro studies from France and China reported on the efficacy of chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) against SARS-CoV-2 infections, which generated global attention towards these decades-old antimalarials (AM) and heralded numerous studies investigating their role in treating COVID-19. Despite several observational studies early in the pandemic affirming their beneficial role in treating COVID-19, 12 clinical studies reported no mortality benefits for CQ/HCQ in COVID-19 patients.

Platelet bound complement split product (PC4d) is a marker of platelet activation and arterial vascular events in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Platelet-bound complement activation products (PC4d) are associated with thrombosis in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). This study investigated the effect of PC4d on platelet function, as a mechanistic link to arterial thrombosis. In a cohort of 150 SLE patients, 13 events had occurred within five years of enrollment.

Prevalence of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in adults and children with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: To define the risk of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in SLE.

Methods: This is a retrospective observational study to evaluate PML cases in patients with SLE admitted to two large academic hospitals. Using electronic medical record (EMR) data, International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes identified PML cases among patients with SLE, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (controls), had renal transplant and with HIV.

Renal Manifestations of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Renal manifestations in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have evolved as RA management has improved. In the past, older disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, uncontrolled systemic inflammation, and chronic nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) use contributed to kidney disease. Over time, the use of methotrexate and biologic medications, decrease in NSAID use, and a treat-to-target strategy have contributed to a decrease in renal manifestations.

Comparison of the Lupus Foundation of America-Rapid Evaluation of Activity in Lupus to More Complex Disease Activity Instruments As Evaluated by Clinical Investigators or Real-World Clinicians.

Objective: Lupus disease measures such as the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) and the British Isles Lupus Assessment Group (BILAG) index are challenging to interpret. The Lupus Foundation of America-Rapid Evaluation of Activity in Lupus (LFA-REAL) is intended to provide an efficient application of anchored visual analog scores, each representing the individual severity of active symptoms, with the sum of individual scores deriving an overall disease activity assessment. Our objective was to compare the performance of LFA-REAL to systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity assessments and compare scores between trained lupus clinical investigators and clinicians.