Objective: To characterize the microbiome of the temporal artery in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), and to apply an unbiased and comprehensive shotgun sequencing-based approach to determine whether there is an enrichment of candidate pathogens in the affected tissue.
Methods: Temporal artery biopsy specimens were collected from patients at a single institution over a period of 4 years, and unbiased DNA sequencing was performed on 17 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens. Twelve of the 17 patients fulfilled the clinical and histopathologic criteria for GCA, and the other 5 patients served as controls. Using PathSeq software, human DNA sequences were computationally subtracted, and the remaining non-human DNA sequences were taxonomically classified using a comprehensive microbial sequence database. The relative abundance of microbes was inferred based on read counts assigned to each organism. Comparison of the microbial diversity between GCA cases and controls was carried out using hierarchical clustering and linear discriminant analysis of effect size.
Results: Propionibacterium acnes and Escherichia coli were the most abundant microorganisms in 16 of the 17 samples, and Moraxella catarrhalis was the most abundant organism in 1 control sample. Pathogens previously described to be correlated with GCA were not differentially abundant in cases compared to controls. There was not a significant burden of likely pathogenic viruses.
Conclusion: DNA sequencing of temporal artery biopsy specimens from GCA cases, in comparison with non-GCA controls, showed no evidence of previously identified candidate GCA pathogens. A single pathogen was not clearly and consistently associated with GCA in this case series.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/art.38631 | DOI Listing |
RMD Open
January 2025
Rheumatology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Objective: To test the reliability of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Giant cell arteritis (GCA) Ultrasonography Score (OGUS) and other composite scores in a patient-based exercise involving experts and non-experts in vascular ultrasonography.
Methods: Six GCA patients were scanned twice (two rounds separated ≥3 hours) by 12 experts and 12 non-experts. Non-experts received 90 min of theoretical and 240 min of practical training between rounds 1 and 2.
Rheumatology (Oxford)
January 2025
Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario La Paz-IdiPaz, Madrid, Spain.
Objectives: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a large/medium-vessel granulomatous vasculitis, and the PD-1/PD-L1 coinhibitory pathway seems to be implicated in its pathogenesis. CD4 T cells expressing high PD-1 levels, CD4+CXCR5-PD-1hi peripheral helper (Tph) and CD4+CXCR5+PD-1hi follicular helper T cells (Tfh), are key mediators of autoimmunity. Their frequencies are elevated in the peripheral blood of subjects with several autoimmune conditions but have not been investigated in GCA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy is generally a safe treatment for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer but sometimes causes complications.
Case Presentation: The patient was an 80-year-old man who had undergone Bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Two months later, he developed an irregular pelvic mass surrounding the prostate and rectum with no fever.
Zhongguo Shi Yan Xue Ye Xue Za Zhi
December 2024
Department of Hematology, Zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, Jiangsu Province, China.
Int J Womens Health
December 2024
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, Lucerne, 6000, Switzerland.
Douglas abscesses (DA) involving the ovaries and/or fallopian tubes and tubo-ovarian abscesses (TOA) constitute a very rare finding in virginal females. Underlying conditions are suspected to play a role in their development; often however, the exact pathomechanism remains hypothetical or unknown. We report the case of a 19-year-old virginal female who was referred to our outpatient clinic for further clarification of a 6-month ongoing secondary amenorrhea.
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