OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence and distribution of rheumatic diseases in a community based rheumatological outpatient practice. METHODS Rheumatological diagnoses of 3751 consecutive new and returning patients were recorded using a standard diagnosis form. RESULTS 6264 rheumatological diagnoses were made in 3751 patients, of whom 1097 were newly referred; 69% of all patients were female....

Cutaneous mucinosis is a group of conditions involving an accumulation of mucin or glycosaminoglycan in the skin and its annexes. It is described in some connective tissue diseases but never in association with mixed connective tissue disease. This report concerns two cases of cutaneous mucinosis in patients with mixed connective tissue disease in remission; one patient presented the papular fo...

Intracranial hypotension is typically manifested by orthostatic headache. The most frequent underlying factor is cerebrospinal fluid leakage. It has been suggested that dural structural weakness in some connective tissue diseases may be responsible for dural tears and diverticula and consequently leakage. We present a case of spontaneous intracranial hypotension associated with Marfan syndrome ...

Parotid saliva was collected from 32 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 10 with systemic lupus erythematosus, three with mixed connective tissue disease, 12 with progressive systemic sclerosis, two with primary Sjögren's syndrome, and four with Raynaud's syndrome. Tissue kallikreins were measured by radioimmunoassay, and saliva samples were subjected to isoelectric focusing followed by immunob...

Methotrexate by intermittent intramuscular injection was used to treat three patients with fibrosing alveolitis complicating connective tissue diseases. All three patients had improvement of symptoms, two had radiological improvement, and one had significant improvement of pulmonary function. Two patients whose pulmonary symptoms, function, and chest radiographs had deteriorated on penicillamin...

A patient with IgA deficiency presented with classical rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and subsequently, features of multiple other connective tissue diseases (CTD). When Hodgkin's disease later developed the patient received combination chemotherapy, which induced remission of both neoplastic and connective tissue diseases. As the RA remained in remission for three years this case may offer insight ...