STRUCTURE OF ASAS ASAS began in 1995 as an informal group. However, during the ensuing years there was a growing interest in the field of AS and in the work done by ASAS. This necessitated a more formal structure. At present, ASAS consists of an executive steering committee, an advisory board, members, and corporate partners. The following persons form the steering committee: Désirée van der He...

In the present study we evaluated the impact of baseline antinuclear antibody (ANA) status and use of methotrexate on development of infliximab-related infusion reactions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondylarthropathies (SpAs), including psoriatic arthritis. All patients with RA (n = 213) or SpA (n = 76) treated with infliximab during the period 1999-2005 at the Department of ...

The association between HLA-B27 and spondylarthropathies is currently being reinvestigated in the light of HLA-B27 subtyping. At least 11 different subtypes have been described among which B*2703, B*2706, and B*2709 could be less closely associated with disease at the population level. Differences in the presentation of antigenic peptides by these subtypes could be related to differences in dis...

Objective. To assess the safety of anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-a therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondylarthropathies (SA) and concurrent chronic hepatitis B or C. Methods. Records concerning 480 outpatients attending the Rheumatology Department of the University Hospital of Nice (France) for RA or SA were retrospectively reviewed for the duration of disease, treatme...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the frequency and the clinical characteristics of distal extremity swelling with pitting edema in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). METHODS This was a case-control study of consecutive outpatients with PsA (old and new diagnosis) observed over a 3-month period in three secondary referral centers in Italy. As controls we used the two consecutive rheumatic outpatien...

Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) like Infliximab, Etarnacept and Adalimumab have been successfully studied in controlled clinical trials and are currently recommended in the treatment of patients with spondyloarthropathy (SPA). Significant proportion of patients in clinical studies have, however, failed to achieve a desired clinical response, or, are discontinued from the therapy due to...

The seronegative spondyloarthropathies (SpAs) are associated both with clinical and subclinical colitis. Recently biological blockade with the tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) antagonists infliximab and etanercept has been shown to be effective in the treatment of SpA. However, only infliximab is efficacious in the treatment of colitis in patients with Crohn's SpA. We report on two patie...

The important co-existence of spondylarthritis (SpA) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) within the same individual suggests common etiopathogenic mechanisms. This is supported by intriguing similarities between both diseases at the subclinical and molecular level. The recent advances in IBD genetics have led to the identification of common pathways involved in both IBD and SpA, including bact...

Over the past decades, more effective and less toxic biologicals have revolutionized rheumatology therapy in our battle against the autoimmune chronic inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathy. But what about for patients who have previously had an infection of the liver? Prior hepatitis B virus infection clearly presents a challenge for clinicians. In a study by Charpin and ...

Early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and monitoring of the disease during therapy have attracted considerable interest over the past decade. Imaging studies of seronegative spondyloarthropathies, however, are few and far between, even though these disorders occur as frequently as rheumatoid arthritis. Now the potential promise of biological therapy to treat ankylosing spondylitis, one of the...