Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine treatment adherence and disease burden, analyze detailed medication problems experienced by patients, and identify factors associated with adherence in patients with rheumatic diseases in China.
Patients And Methods: Patients with confirmed diagnoses of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were recruited, regardless of demographics, disease severity, and treatment characteristics. Adherence was assessed using the Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology and interview-based self-reports. A backwards-stepwise multivariate regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with adherence.
Results: We collected data on 252 patients who had a rheumatic disease and visited our outpatient clinic in January or February of 2017. There were 121 patients with SLE, 70 with RA, and 61 with AS. The overall adherence rate was 41.7%, with 48.7% for SLE patients, 38.6% for RA patients, and 31.1% for AS patients. The overall EuroQol (EQ)-index was 0.761; AS patients had the best EQ-index (0.792), followed by those with SLE (0.780) and RA (0.700). SLE patients also had greater annual direct costs (US$5,103.58) than RA or AS patients.
Conclusion: Overall, 41.7% of our rheumatic disease patients were adherent to treatment, lower than in many other parts of the world. This indicates that it is important to identify methods that improve adherence in this population. It is particularly important to improve the health status and reduce the disease burden of patients with SLE, the most common of the three rheumatic diseases we analyzed. Our results suggest that reminder tools may improve adherence. Further prospective research is needed to confirm whether reminder tools and other measures can improve patient compliance.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S144624 | DOI Listing |
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Department of Occupational and Environmental Diseases, University Hospital of Centre of Paris, Hotel-Dieu Hospital, and Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Centre of Paris, Cochin Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France AP-HP, Paris, France.
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J Invest Dermatol
January 2025
Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China; National Engineering Research Center of Personalized Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technology, Changsha, China; Furong Laboratory, Changsha, China; Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China; National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China. Electronic address:
Melanoma is a devastating form of skin cancer characterized by a high mutational burden, limited treatment success, and dismal prognosis. Although immunotherapy and targeted therapies have significantly revolutionized melanoma treatment, the majority of patients fail to achieve durable responses, highlighting the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death driven by the overwhelming accumulation of lipid peroxides, has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach in preclinical melanoma models.
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National Amyloidosis Centre, University College London, Royal Free Campus, Rowland Hill Street, London, United Kingdom.
Cardiac amyloidosis represents a unique disease process characterized by amyloid fibril deposition within the myocardial extracellular space. Advances in multimodality cardiac imaging enable accurate diagnosis and facilitate prompt initiation of disease-modifying therapies. Furthermore, rapid advances in multimodality imaging have enriched understanding of the underlying pathogenesis, enhanced prognostication, and resulted in the development of imaging-based markers that reflect the amyloid burden, which is of increasing importance when assessing the response to treatment.
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January 2025
Division of Plastic Surgery, Integrated Burn & Wound Care Center, Department of Surgery, Shuang-Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
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