OBJECTIVE Patient-reported measures can quickly provide assessments of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity in the office setting and do not require a laboratory test or physician examination. The goal of our study was to establish the validity of patient-reported indices compared to the C-reactive protein-based Disease Activity Score (DAS28-CRP4). METHODS Baseline and 1-year followup D...

BACKGROUND It has been recognized that infectious agents, such as different bacteria and viruses, may play a role in the developing of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recently, the mycoplasma species has been implicated in the pathogenesis of RA. AIM The aim of this study was to design a multiplex PCR for rapid and simultaneous detection of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Mycoplasma hominis, and Mycoplasma...

Retinoic acid (RA), the natural acid derivative of vitamin A, can induce the differentiation of some cell lines, such as the murine P19 teratocarcinoma cell line. RA can alter the expression of specific genes and the level of the corresponding protein. This report describes the effect of RA on the level of the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) mRNA and protein in P19 teratocarcinoma cells. RA caused a...

RA is a complex disease that develops as a series of events often referred to as disease continuum. RA would benefit from novel biomarker development for diagnosis where new biomarkers are still needed (even if progresses have been made with the inclusion of ACPA into the ACR/EULAR 2010 diagnostic criteria) and for prognostic notably in at risk of evolution patients with autoantibody-positive a...