We report the case of a 48-year-old, leukodermic female diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis for 4 years and latent tuberculosis. She was allergic to salicylates and had a minor allergic reaction to infliximab (rash, vertigo, and headache). Thereafter, she started azathioprine (2.5 mg/kg/day). She maintained intravenous infliximab, together with prophylaxis with clemastine and hydrocortisone, du...

This study of children with chronic arthritis confirms that patients at greatest risk for chronic iridocyclitis have a young age of onset and positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA). Children who are ANA negative have a low risk of iridocyclitis. When it occurs it is at a significantly older age. No child developing juvenile chronic arthritis over 9, even with positive ANA, had chronic iritis. Th...

Protein-losing enteropathy is rarely seen in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. This clinical condition should be suspected in the presence of persistent hypoalbuminemia despite normal liver function, adequate protein intake, and no significant proteinuria. We report the case of a 48-year-old female with weight loss, cavity effusions (ascites and pleural effusion), and lower extremity ...

We report a case of a 71-year-old Filipino female who was admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea of 8 days duration. The patient was found to have marked acute kidney injury (AKI), which required hemodialysis in the next 3 days. Extensive workup revealed hematuria, subnephrotic range proteinuria, elevated anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) and elevated total immunoglobulin ...

A 36-year old woman presented with a dark spot in her right eye for one week. She had a history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) diagnosed on the basis of ANA positivity with a 1:320 titer, joint swelling, butterfly rash, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and anti-phospholipid syndrome with positive anti-cardiolipin antibodies. She had been diagnosed with lupus choroidopathy two months p...

Macrophage Activating Syndrome (MAS) is a life-threatening disease seen in autoimmune diseases including lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Still's disease, polyarteritis nodosa. It is characterized by fever, pancytopenia, liver failure, coagulopathy, and neurologic symptoms and high serum ferritin. A 27 yr. old female patient was admitted in shahid Mostafa Khomeini Hospital (Tehran-Ira...

INTRODUCTION Laboratory tests have an important role in rheumatology for evaluation, diagnosis and follow up in several diseases. Specialized tests such as antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti single or double stranded DNA antibodies (anti DNA) and anticardiolipin antibodies (AcACL) are frequently used and its diagnostic performance is well known in tertiary care centers. Our setting is a seconda...

BACKGROUND Circulating autoantibodies occur more frequently in cancer patients than in patients without cancer. METHODS AND FINDINGS We examined sera from patients referred for pelvic mass symptoms to a tertiary university clinic. A total of 127 were diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer while 386 had a benign condition. A screen for IgG anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) by indirect immunofluo...

Background: A crucial step in modifying the course of lupus nephritis is early identification kidney disease systemic patients. Lupus affects around 30% to 60% SLE patients and 70% juvenile SLE. Renal biopsy, which an invasive procedure with hazards, considered gold standard diagnose Nephritis. Ceruloplasmin (CP) acute phase protein that transports most circulating copper functions as iron oxid...

Rowell syndrome is usually diagnosed by the presence of erythema multiforme like targetoid lesions in the patients of cutaneous or systemic lupus erythematosus and characterized by specific serological or immunological profile like speckled antinuclear antibody pattern, antibody against saline extract of human tissues (anti-SjT) and positive serum rheumatoid factor.The absence of a universally ...