Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial inflammation and destruction of joint cartilage and bone. Different cytokines play important role in the processes that cause articular destruction and extra-articular manifestations in RA. The contribution of cytokines representing the Th1 (INF-γ), Th2 (IL-4) and IL-17A to the pathogenesis of early RA and bon...

Objectives. Depression is common in RA and may be influenced by both disease activity and severity. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence of depression in RA patients starting anti-TNF therapy, to investigate how mood alters after exposure to anti-TNF and to determine whether depression is recognized and appropriately managed in the clinic. Methods. Patients starting anti-TN...

Objective. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have become an essential part of the assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We aimed to evaluate the agreement and correlation between PROs and the physician's measurements. Methods. This was a cross-sectional analytical study in which 135 patients with RA were clinically evaluated during two different sessions of focus group interview...

Rhupus in an infrequent disease in which an overlap between lupus eritematosus and rheumatoid arthritis exists. Joint manifestations are prominent and treatment with non biological DMARDs is not always satisfactory, so immunosupressors and biological agents have been tried. A prospective, open clinical study was done to evaluate efficacy and tolerability of rituximab in patients with Rhupus. Th...

AIM To investigate whether overweight/obesity at diagnosis affects the chances of decrease in disease activity and pain in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHOD We investigated incident RA cases from the population-based Epidemiological Investigation of risk factors for Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA) study (2006-2009, N=495) with clinical follow-up in the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register....

BACKGROUND Response to disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is often heterogeneous. We aimed to identify types of disease activity trajectories following the initiation of a new biologic DMARD (bDMARD). METHODS Pooled analysis of nine national registries of patients with diagnosis of RA, who initiated Abatacept and had at least two measures of disease ac...

Changes in plasma IL-6, plasma VEGF and serum YKL-40 were determined in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients during treatment with etanercept alone or in combination with methotrexate. Twenty-five patients with active RA (DAS28 >/= 3.2) were randomized to receive etanercept (25 mg sc. biweekly) plus methotrexate (n = 12) or etanercept alone (n = 13). Plasma IL-6, plasma VEGF and serum YKL-40 were...

OBJECTIVES Monitoring of disease activity using DAS28 is more effective than routine RA care, but the ESR measurement is time consuming. Alternative rapid ESR determination methods can be used but effects on DAS28 classification are unknown. METHODS Alternative rapid ESR methods, including the Starrsed 30-minute mode and Alifax Roller Test-1TH, were compared to the Westergren method. Mean dif...

BACKGROUND As an irreversible disease, a treatment delay can negatively affect treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Ultrasound and MRI have played an important role in assessing disease progression and response to treatment in RA for many years. The present study was designed to compare the diagnostic efficacy of ultrasound grading and MRI in early RA. METHODS In this retrospectiv...

BACKGROUND To get insight in the prevalence of high, or low/no serum infliximab trough levels in patients with low disease activity and if serum trough levels are stable and reliable longitudinally we conducted a prospective cohort study METHODS In a longitudinal, observational cohort of RA patients treated with infliximab for at least 6 months, treatment interval, DAS28, infliximab trough le...