OBJECTIVES To determine whether rheumatoid factors (RFs), measured as continuous variables by time resolved fluoroimmunoassay, reflect disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Further, to study the association of RFs and other disease activity parameters with radiological joint damage, especially in individual patients. METHODS In active, early RA, IgM and IgA RFs, as well as erythrocyt...

©2018 Turkish League Against Rheumatism. All rights reserved. ABSTRACT Objectives: This study aims to investigate the association of pentraxin 3 (PTX3) with neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) rather than the disease activity score 28 using C-reactive protein in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients and methods: The study included 59 RA patients (11 males, 48 females; mean age 53.79±13.55 years; ra...

PURPOSE To evaluate quality of life (QOL) before and after corticosteroid therapy for thyroid eye disease (TED) and to determine the impact of the disease on QOL. METHODS A modified TED-QOL questionnaire was completed by consecutive patients before and at least 6 months after steroid therapy. All patients were clinically and biochemically euthyroid during the course of the study. QOL was asse...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate a multi-biomarker disease activity (MBDA) score, a novel index based on 12 serum proteins, as a tool to guide management of RA patients. METHODS A total of 125 patients with RA from the Behandel Strategieën study were studied. Clinical data and serum samples were available from 179 visits, 91 at baseline and 88 at year 1. In each serum sample, 12 biomarkers were measured...

Methods According to MTX-administration route, children were divided into four groups: sc, po, switching from po to sc and from sc to po. Based on joint counts (pain, swelling and limited range of motion), patient's and physician's visual analogue scale for disease activity (VAS) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or C-reactive protein (CRP), a combined overall disease activity score (ent...

AIM To compare and evaluate the treatment outcomes of a nurse-led rheumatology clinic and a rheumatologist-led clinic in patients with low disease activity or in remission who are undergoing biological therapy. BACKGROUND Patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis treated with biological therapy are usually monitored by rheumatologists. Nurse-led rheumatology clinics have been proposed in p...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The aim of this study was to compare the sleep quality between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy controls; and to evaluate the relationship between RA disease activity and sleep quality in Korea. METHODS A total of 130 RA patients and 67 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled in a comparative study of sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality I...

OBJECTIVE To determine if the BILAG-2004 index is sensitive to change for assessment of SLE disease activity. METHODS This was a prospective multi-centre longitudinal study of SLE patients. At every assessment, data were collected on disease activity (BILAG-2004 index) and treatment. Analyses were performed using overall BILAG-2004 index score (as determined by the highest score achieved by a...

OBJECTIVES To validate the Auto-Inflammatory Diseases Activity Index (AIDAI) in the four major hereditary recurrent fever syndromes (HRFs): familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD), tumour necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) and cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS). METHODS In 2010, an international collaboration established th...

Methods The Brazilian Portuguese version of the CU-Q2oL was self-administered in 96 adults with CU treated at the outpatient clinic of a university hospital. Disease activity was assessed using the Urticaria Activity Score (UAS). The following characteristics were also studied: age, gender, type of urticarial and duration of disease. ANOVA was used to compare the results of CU-Q2oL between the ...