Whether or not these are simply different stages of the same disease process is unknown, but certainly rheumatoid subjects not uncommonly show more than one type of lesion during the later stages of the disease. The most readily recognized clinical manifestations of rheumatoid vascular disease are those involving the skin. Crops of nail-edge lesions and petechia-like lesions of the finger pulps...

Current clinical practice relies heavily on serologic testing for the prompt and accurate diagnosis of rheumatic diseases. Serologic testing should be used to support the findings of the history and physical examination, and, in some cases, to monitor disease activity. The inflammation of the rheumatoid arthritis (RA), polymyalgia rheumatica, and temporal arteritis can be assessed by the erythr...

Giant cell arteritis is a granulomatous vasculitis of large and medium sized arteries manifesting as temporal arteritis and/or polymyalgia rheumatica. The histological assessment of temporal artery biopsies is frequently encountered in anatomical pathology and has important diagnostic consequences in patients clinically suspected of having giant cell arteritis. We present an intriguing case of ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether there is association between the rs20541 (R130Q) polymorphism in the IL-13 gene with disease susceptibility and clinical subsets in patients with elderly-associated inflammatory chronic diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS 78 patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), 174 with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), 90 elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA), and 465 healthy...

Background Takayasu arteritis (TA) is associated with an increased risk of developing complicated comorbidities, which can bring both psychological and physical burdens to the patients. Most cases are young female patients onset age 10 40 years [1]. Psychological disorders have long been recognized as important comorbidities immune diseases. In case rheumatoid progress, comorbid depression anxi...

Th e value of glucocorticoid therapy was discovered 65 years ago. In 1949, Philip Hench reported the dramatic eff ect of compound E on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [1]. Nowadays, glucocorticoids play a pivotal role in the management of many infl ammatory rheumatic diseases [2-7]. Glucocorticoids represent the most frequently em ployed class of anti-infl ammatory drugs, with a rise in use in recent...

Serum rheumatologic tests are generally most useful for confirming a clinically suspected diagnosis. Testing for rheumatoid factor is appropriate when rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome or cryoglobulinemia is suspected. Antinuclear antibody testing is highly sensitive for systemic lupus erythematosus and drug-induced lupus. Anti-double-stranded DNA antibodies correlate with lupus nephriti...

A number of investigations testify to the association of vascular factors with joint disturbances. The Scientific Advisory Committee of the Empire Rheumatism Council concluded, as a result of a carefully controlled investigation (1950), that peripheral vascular abnormalities are not only associated with rheumatoid arthritis but frequently ante-date its onset; Davis (1941) analysed 88 cases in 2...

1. Polasky, N., Polasky, S., Magenheim, H. & Abrams, N.R. Giant cell arteritis. Review and report of a case. JAMA 1965, 191: 341-343. 2. Nehra, P.C., Ramus, D.M. & Peterson, J. Giant-cell arteritis of the uterus with associated temporal arteritis: a case report. Obstet Gynecol 1990, 76: 935-938. 3. Padwell, A. Isolated arteritis of the uterine cervix. Three cases report. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 19...