Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are becoming major health concerns for adults with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. The enhanced atherogenesis in this patient population is promoted by the exposure to traditional risk factors as well as nontraditional cardiovascular insults, such as corticosteroid therapy, chronic inflammation and autoantibodies. Despite definite differences between many...

Gingivitis and periodontitis are immunoinflammatory periodontal diseases characterized by chronic localized infections usually associated with insidious inflammation This narrative review discusses periodontal diseases and mechanisms influencing the immune response and autoimmunity in pediatric rheumatic diseases (PRD), particularly juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), childhood-onset systemic ...

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are an heterogeneous group of chronic disorders of intestinal inflammation characterised by periods of remission and exacerbation. Crohn’s disease (CD) an ulcerative colitis (UC) are the two major clinical subtypes of IBD [1]. CD is caracterised by transmural inflammation in a non contiguos pattern anywhere from the mouth to the anus. Ileocolonic region is the ...

OBJECTIVE AI/RHEUM is a multimedia expert system developed originally to assist in the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases in adults. In the present study we evaluated the usefulness of a modified version of this diagnostic decision support system in diagnosing childhood rheumatic diseases. METHODOLOGY AI/RHEUM was modified by the addition of 5 new diseases to the knowledge base of the system. Cr...

Clinical prediction rules (CPR) are tools including appropriately weighted clinical aspects (history, physical examination and/or complementary tests) showing the odds for a specific diagnosis or prognosis. Their development includes a complex and strict process to achieve the scientific strength which supports use in clinical settings. Although CPR may be developed for almost any clinical situ...

tral nervous system demyelination have been increasingly recognized in children. Moreover, a much higher proportion of children (as compared to adults) suffer from a monophasic (and not chronic) demyelinating event such as acute disseminated encephalomyelitis or isolated optic neuritis, and transverse myelitis, often post-infectious. Differentiation between such acute monophasic illnesses and a...

Leishmaniasis is a group of diseases caused by the protozoa Leishmania, endemic in the Mediterranean countries. Clinical manifestations can be divided into three different forms: cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucosal leishmaniasis and the visceral leishmaniasis, the most severe form which is potentially lethal if untreated. Immunology and pathogenesis are complex: many different aspects of immune re...

Mitochondrial disorders are amongst the most common groups of inborn errors of metabolism. They are caused by deficiencies in the final pathway of the cellular energy production, the mitochondrial respiratory chain. The disorders are clinically and genetically heterogeneous and the aetiology could be found in the mitochondrial, or in the nuclear genome. We searched important e-databases for the...

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are involved in the regulation of numerous biological processes and pathways and therefore have been extensively studied in human diseases. Previous reports have shown that non-coding RNAs play a crucial role in the pathogenesis and aberrant regulation of respiratory diseases. The altered expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs in blood and also locally...

Members of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Pulmonology and the Japanese Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases developed the Guidelines for the Management of Respiratory Infectious Diseases in Children with the objective of facilitating the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of childhood respiratory infections. To date, a first edition (2004) and a revised edition (2007) have been issued....