This paper provides an overview of rheumatoid disease from the perspective of its impact on mortality. The term, rheumatoid arthritis, may promote the misconception that this disease is relatively trivial and easily managed; therefore, "rheumatoid disease" is preferred. Numerous long-term studies in many settings have established that significant excess mortality is associated with rheumatoid d...

Data from population- and clinic-based epidemiologic studies of rheumatoid arthritis patients suggest that individuals with rheumatoid arthritis are at risk for developing clinically evident congestive heart failure. Many established risk factors for congestive heart failure are over-represented in rheumatoid arthritis and likely account for some of the increased risk observed. In particular, d...

Background: Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease, characterized by the presence of antibodies directed to TSH receptor or nearby regions as well as antibodies to double strands DNA (dsDNA) anticardiolipin and nuclear antibodies. This study evaluated anticardiolipin and rheumatoid factor, such as IgA and IgM antibodies in patients with Graves’ disease. Patients and methods: Anticardiolipin a...

background : graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease, characterized by the presence of antibodies directed to tsh receptor or nearby regions as well as antibodies to double strands dna (dsdna) anticardiolipin and nuclear antibodies. this study evaluated anticardiolipin and rheumatoid factor, such as iga and igm antibodies in patients with graves’ disease.   patients and methods: anticardiolipi...

Rheumatoid arthritis is a multistep disorder associated with autoimmune features of yet unknown etiology. Implication of viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis has been suspected on the basis of several indirect observations, but thus far, a direct link between EBV and rheumatoid arthritis has not been provided. Here we show that a large fraction of T cell...

Most clinical studies involving rheumatoid factors are made on sera; relatively few investigations are reported on rheumatoid factors in joint fluid, connective tissue extracts, interstitial fluid and cells. Joint fluid of patients with rheumatoid arthritis often contains rheumatoid factor, measured by the latex fixation and sheep cell agglutination tests.,"'8 Mellors, et al.' established evide...

17. Liote F, Pertuisct E, Cochand-Priollet B et al. Methotrexate related B lymphoproliferative disease in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis. Role of Epstein-Barr virus infection. J Rheumatol 1995;22:1174-8. 18. Hilliquin P, Renoux M, Perrot S, Puechal X, Menkes CJ. Occurrence of pulmonary complications during methotrexate therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Br J Rheumatol 1996^5:441-5. 19. Beyel...

Background: Previous studies showed that one of the complications of rheumatoid arthritis disease was auditory disorder. The goal of the present study was to compare the auditory status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy individuals. Methods: In the present case-control study, 30 normal persons and 60 persons with rheumatoid arthritis with mean age of 46.72 and standard deviatio...

The major rheumatoid factor cross reactive idiotype (RCRI), defined by prototypic monoclonal rheumatoid factors (RFs), is expressed as a dominant idiotype by pokeweed mitogen induced plasma cells obtained from seropositive (RF+) patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Some patients who meet clinical diagnostic criteria for RA set by the American Rheumatism Association fail to express RFs at an...

Hospital data (Greenwood, 1968) and a population survey (to be published) suggest that rheumatoid arthritis is an uncommon disease in Western Nigeria. Furthermore, Nigerian patients satisfying the American Rheumatism Association criteria for a diagnosis of definite or probable rheumatoid arthritis (Ropes, Bennett, Cobb, Jacox, and Jessar, 1959) have a clinically milder disease than European pat...