Immunodominant T-cell epitopes of hnRNP-A2 associated with disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2 (hnRNP-A2) has been described as an important autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since it is targeted by autoantibodies, autoreactive T cells, and is aberrantly expressed in synovial cells in patients. To identify hnRNP-A2-specific T-cell epitopes possibly associated with pathogenicity, we used an innovative approach. We first scanned 280 overlapping hnRNP-A2 peptides for binding to the RA-associated class II molecules HLA-DR4 and HLA-DR1, leading to a comprehensive selection of binders.

I have mastered the challenge of living with a chronic disease: life stories of people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Our aim with this study was to explore the narrative life story of individuals diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. An open qualitative approach, namely narrative biographic methodology, was applied to include the life context of the participants and to deliberately exclude predefinitions of concepts. Ten people with rheumatoid arthritis who retired early because of the disease participated and were interviewed three times according to a narrative biographic interview style.

Concepts important to patients with psoriatic arthritis are not adequately covered by standard measures of functioning.

Objective: To explore whether the concepts important to patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are covered by self-report instruments assessing functioning.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative focus group study with PsA patients about their problems in daily functioning. Focus groups were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Cruelty's rewards: the gratifications of perpetrators and spectators.

Cruelty is the deliberate infliction of physical or psychological pain on other living creatures, sometimes indifferently, but often with delight. Though cruelty is an overwhelming presence in the world, there is no neurobiological or psychological explanation for its ubiquity and reward value. This target article attempts to provide such explanations by describing three stages in the development of cruelty.

Very recent onset rheumatoid arthritis: clinical and serological patient characteristics associated with radiographic progression over the first years of disease.

Objectives: Despite early recognition and disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment, a sizable proportion of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients show radiological progression. This study was performed to determine the frequency of erosive arthritis and the pace of radiological progression in an inception cohort of patients with very early RA (
Methods: In order to determine possible prognostic factors for development of erosive disease, we linked the clinical features of these patients to radiological progression in a regression model.