Vascular endothelial growth factor in patients with psoriatic arthritis.

Objective: To determine the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with active psoriatic arthritis, patients with inactive psoriatic arthritis, and healthy controls. Serum VEGF levels were correlated with clinical and laboratory features in patients with active psoriasis arthritis.

Methods: Serum samples from 14 patients with active psoriatic arthritis, 14 patients with inactive psoriatic arthritis, and 9 healthy controls were investigated.

New treatment possibilities in rheumatoid arthritis.

It is very difficult to predict future treatment modalities especially in diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with unknown etiology and pathogenesis. In the near future, traditional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) alone, in combination with each other, or together with cyclosporine, FK506, Rapamycin, or Leflunomide, will probably be the main treatment for RA. Currently biological anti-TNFalpha agents like humanized MAb and recombinant TNF-receptor constructs are now launched in the market.

Sensitivity and specificity of anti-Sa autoantibodies for rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To assess the sensitivity and specificity of the recently described anti-Sa autoantibodies in order to determine their potential usefulness for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Sera from 67 patients with RA (including 31 patients with early RA of <3 months duration), from 180 patients with other rheumatic diseases and from 30 healthy control subjects were investigated by immunoblotting employing partially purified Sa antigen. Additionally, all sera were tested for rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-A2/RA33, antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and ANA subsets.

The concurrence of rheumatoid arthritis and limited systemic sclerosis: clinical and serologic characteristics of an overlap syndrome.

Objective: The characteristics of 3 patients with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and consecutive evolution of limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (IcSSc) were evaluated and compared with those of patients with IcSSc alone (n = 20) or with RA alone (n = 120).

Methods: Clinical features of the different patient populations were compared. Serologic analyses included tests for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and ANA subsets, in particular anticentromere antibodies (ACA) and anti-heterogeneous nuclear RNP (hnRNP)-A2/RA33 (anti-A2/RA33).