OBJECTIVE To determine whether circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors and their binding proteins are altered in patients with adult onset rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS Plasma-levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), IGF-II, IGF-binding-protein 2 (IGFBP-2), and IGFBP-3 were measured by radioimmunoassay in 53 patients with clinically active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in 51 ...

689–90. 16 Corrao S, Salli L, Arnone S, Scaglione L, et al. Echodoppler abnormalities in patients with rheumatoid arthritis without clinically evident cardiovascular disease. Eur J Clin Invest 1996;26:293–7. 17 Slack D, Waller B. Acute congestive heart failure due to the arteritis of rheumatoid arthritis. Early diagnosis by endomyocardial biopsy. Angiology 1986;6:477–81. 18 Banks MJ, Flint EJ, ...

Rheumatoid factors (RF) are autoantibodies with specificity for the Fc portion of human IgG. Production of RF is a characteristic feature of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is detectable in high titer in about 90% of these patients. In this study, we measured total IgM, IgA, IgMRF and IgARF in serum and synovial fluid of 45 RA patients by ELISA and the results were compared with those obtained b...

background and objectives: mycoplasma arthritidis mitogen (mam) superantigen has been shown to induce chronic arthritis, which resembles human rheumatoid arthritis (ra) in a rodent model. however, its role as a causative agent in human ra is not well understood yet. the aim of this study was to investigate the presence of mam superantigen gene in the synovial fluid (sf) of ra patients. material...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of airways obstruction and bronchial reactivity to inhaled methacholine in rheumatoid arthritis patients and unselected controls. The control population consisted of patients attending the rheumatology department for minor degenerative joint problems. METHODS One hundred patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [72 (72%) women, 28 (28%) men; mean (SD) a...

Four assays of rheumatoid factor (RF) have been measured on serum from 213 individuals from 13 families containing at least two sufferers from classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Families were not uniformly RF positive or negative, and there was no evidence that non-RA RF positivity was inherited. Four individuals developed definite RA over a two year period, showing that the famil...

conclusions: this study showed that a considerable portion of patients with ra may have mental problems. the probability of these problems increased with more severe and more prolonged disease. results: ghq28 screening test showed that psychological problems were seen in 49% of studied patients. there were significant difference between duration of disease and das-28 score between the two group...

Based on increasing knowledge on the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), more and more potential therapeutics have been developed. To evaluate their therapeutic efficacy, safety and toxicity, appropriate animal models are required. Although rodent models of RA have been extensively used for preclinical evaluation, the differences between rodents and humans limit their usability for some ...

OBJECTIVE Develop guidelines for management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Brazil, focusing on diagnosis and early assessment of the disease. METHOD Literature review and expert opinions of RA Committee members of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The following ten reccommendations were established: 1) RA diagnosis should be established considering clinical fin...