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Manger B, et al. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2014 Mar 6 [Epub ahead of print].
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| Palmar fasciitis and polyarthritis syndrome (PFPAS) is a rare but characteristic paraneoplastic syndrome in rheumatology. Its distinct clinical feature is a painful swelling of both the hands caused by an inflammation of the palmar fascia, tendon sheaths and small joints of fingers and wrist, and flexion contractures develop rapidly. The most frequent underlying malignancy is ovarian cancer...... |
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Schramm AM, et al. Autoimmune Dis. 2014;2014:920467.
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| In this review, authors recommend low-dose aspirin administration for all lupus patients starting prior to 16 weeks of gestation. Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome should receive treatment with heparin and low-dose aspirin during pregnancy...... |
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Oomatia A, et al. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014;66(4):1000–1009.
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| In this 25-year study of 2,097 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, authors characterized peripheral neuropathies due to SLE and compared clinical and SLE-related features in patients with neuropathy versus those without neuropathy. The prevalence of peripheral neuropathies was 5.9% (123 of 2,097 patients), and 66.7% of these patients (82 of 123) had peripheral neuropathies attributable to SLE...... |
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West S, et al. Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2014;19(2):201–208.
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| This review suggests that lithium and olanzapine probably represent the best choices for prophylaxis. Patients with a prior history of steroid-related psychosis or mania should be considered for prophylaxis when future courses of steroids are prescribed as limited data, and author's clinical experience suggests that this can reduce the future episodes of neuropsychiatric side-effects...... |
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Calich AL, et al. J Autoimmun. 2014;50:135–141.
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| This is single-center retrospective study used standardized data collection from all granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) patients receiving rituximab (RTX) between 2002 and 2013. This study attempts to reevaluate the efficacy and safety of RTX associated with glucocorticoid treatment based on disease severity, as a remission induction treatment for GPA (Wegener's) and to analyze the results of long-term maintenance therapy with low doses of RTX in a routine time-based protocol...... |
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Noel N, et al. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014;66(5):1306–1314.
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| Authors performed a retrospective analysis of 115 patients who were diagnosed as had neuro-BD (NBD) after exclusion of cerebral venous thrombosis. Acute presentation was noted in 68% and progressive course in 32%. Overall, 46 of 115 patients (40%) had severe disability at baseline, represented by a Rankin score of ≥3. The 5- and 7-year event-free survival rates were 65% and 53%, respectively...... |
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Abrol E, et al. Clin Med. 2014;14(2):157–164.
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| Primary Sjögren's syndrome patients are about 40 times more likely to complicate into a lymphoma than normal people. This analysis just goes on to prove that. While the life span of these patients is believed to be about normal (at least in the subgroup with just sicca and no extraarticular complications), the long-term outcome is not very well known. The authors in this study have studied the same over 25 years during which about one-fifth of them died. Just less than one-third developed malignancies and about half had other autoimmune associations. It would be interested to see if the subset with extraglandular manifestations indeed had earlier mortality, any biomarkers for the same (e.g. decreased compliment levels at baseline) and if treatment had anything to do with the same (steroids and other immunosuppressives) and also if, as in lupus, hydroxychloroquine has any survival advantage...... |
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