Intestinal parasites - helminths and protozoa - are cosmopolitan diseases which are most prevalent in tropical regions. Patients with diagnoses of autoimmune rheumatic diseases have, due to the underlying disease or its treatment, an increased risk of occurrence of severe manifestations of intestinal parasites. Although the prevalence of these parasitic infections is very high in our environmen...

The problem of focal infection in relation to rheumatic diseases has received too little critical consideration. The subject must be approached first from the standpoint of the nature of systemic diseases. In other words we have got to know what rheumatism and arthritis are. The term ' rheumatic diseases ' embraces a big group of various illnesses which have their chief characteristic pain in a...

Immune checkpoint regulators are critical modulators of the immune system, allowing the initiation of a productive immune response and preventing the onset of autoimmunity. Co-inhibitory and co-stimulatory immune checkpoint receptors are required for full T-cell activation and effector functions such as the production of cytokines. In autoimmune rheumatic diseases, impaired tolerance leads to t...

Amyloidosis is a generic term that refers to the deposition of amyloid fibrils in bodily tissues. Its onset is usually after 40 years of age, with localized or systemic involvement associated with multiple myeloma or chronic inflammatory diseases, and can mimic various rheumatic syndromes. We report the case of a patient with amyloidosis associated with multiple myeloma, showing clinical charac...

The outcome of patients admitted to intensive care units is known to be influenced by such factors as age, previous health status, severity of disease, and diagnosis. To estimate the outcome of such patients with systemic rheumatic diseases and to determine if the severity of these diseases unfavourably influences the prognosis at the time of admission to a medical intensive care unit, the clin...

Introduction Autoinflammatory diseases (AIDs) are characterized by recurrent episodes of systemic and organ-specific inflammation. If unrecognized and untreated, they may cause significant morbidity and mortality. Our understanding and management of these disorders has improved markedly over the last decade. Nevertheless, the majority of children with periodic fevers do not have mutations in kn...

Most rheumatic autoimmune diseases are complex in terms of their genetic origins and underlying pathogenic processes. Non-hypothesis-driven scanning platforms are adding novel insights to our understanding of these multifactorial diseases. This review summarizes the handful of recent proteomic studies that have been executed using samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus ...

Plasma levels of the CTAP-III antigen were measured by radioimmunoassay in 80 patients with rheumatic diseases. Patients with clear evidence of vasculitis usually exhibited increased plasma CTAP-III antigen. In both systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, there appeared to be a correlation between pCTAP-III values and other laboratory and clinical parameters of disease activity.

This case report is based on the clinical observation of a patient with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who developed transient galactorrhea. The subsequent literature review documented an interesting association between prolactin and rheumatic diseases and in particular, hyperprolactinemia and SLE. The discussion that follows the case report explores this relationship and proposes ...

Considerable evidence indicates that viruses may be important environmental factors in the pathogenesis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases. A concordance rate of 25% for the most common illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in monozygotic twins shows that genetic factors influence susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. Alternatively, a 70% discordance ...