JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology最新文献

Objective: For early diagnosis and inquiry into the pathophysiology of Sjögren disease (SjD), salivary secretion and component levels, and salivary glands' uptakes in sialoscintigraphy were examined, in this cross-sectional study.

Methods: Patients who visited our hospital with suspected SjD between April 2016 and March 2020 were checked for unstimulated salivary secretion and β 2 -microglobulin, Na + , and cortisol levels in saliva. The patients who showed any abnormal salivary test results underwent sialoscintigraphy; the uptakes in the parotid, submandibular, and thyroid glands were compared using paired t test.

Results: Sixty-five patients (female/male 51/14, 64.5 ± 13.7 years) were checked for saliva. The secretion was 0.39 ± 0.43 mL/min. The component levels were 1.98 ± 1.45 mg/dL for β 2 -microglobulin (n = 61), 15.9 ± 15.3 mEq/L for Na + (n = 61), and 0.20 ± 0.18 μg/dL for cortisol (n = 56). A significant negative correlation was observed between the secretion and each component level. A significant positive correlation was found between the 2 out of the 3 component levels. Sialoscintigraphy of 52 patients showed significantly lower uptake in the submandibular glands than in the parotid glands (submandibular/parotid ratio: 0.51 ± 0.36, left; 0.54 ± 0.39, right). The total uptake in the 4 salivary glands was lower, but not significantly, than that in the thyroid gland.

Conclusions: In patients with suspected SjD, a decreased salivary secretion correlated with a high level of any of β 2 -microglobulin, Na + , and cortisol; the 2 of the 3 levels correlated positively. Sialoscintigraphy showed that the submandibular glands were involved to a greater extent than the parotid glands were. The total salivary gland uptake may be lower than that in thyroid.

Abstract: Drug persistence is a crucial measure of long-term efficacy, safety, and patient satisfaction. Lack of persistence can increase healthcare costs and morbidity and mortality rates. This review aimed to consolidate available data on drug persistence for various biological treatments used as the primary intervention for psoriatic arthritis and identify factors associated with nonpersistence. Reports indicate variable 1-year persistence rates for biologic therapies, ranging from 37% to 73%. Specifically, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors have shown fluctuating 1-year persistence rates ranging from 32% to 85%. IL-12/23 and IL-23 inhibitors demonstrate persistence rates of 25% to 89%, whereas data for IL-17 and JAK inhibitors are more limited, ranging from 51% to 77%. Factors such as female sex and a higher burden of comorbidities have been associated with an increased risk of nonpersistence, although evidence regarding other factors remains scarce. The significant variability in reported persistence rates may be attributed to differences in treatment gaps and methodologies across studies. Addressing and mitigating the factors leading to nonpersistence is essential for improving treatment outcomes in psoriatic arthritis.

Objective: Being Mexico a very diverse developing country, the access to health care varies among geographical regions. We aimed to assess the differences in clinical features and treatment prescription in 3 regions of Mexico using data from the Mexican Adverse Events Registry (BIOBADAMEX).

Methods: We included all BIOBADAMEX patients from 2016 to 2023, compared the prescription patterns, the sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics between the northern (NR), central (CR), and southern regions (SR), and addressed the treatment survival by calculating hazards ratios (HRs).

Results: A total of 1084 patients were included: 389 (35.9%) from the NR, 569 (52.5%) from the CR, and 126 (11.6%) from the SR. The most common diagnosis was rheumatoid arthritis (61.0%). Patients from NR had longer disease duration ( p = 0.03); those from SR had higher BMI ( p < 0.001), DAS28 ( p < 0.001), BASDAI scores ( p = 0.02), and used more frequently glucocorticoids ( p < 0.001). Patients from CR had more comorbidities ( p = 0.001) and more regularly used conventional DMARDs ( p = 0.007). Among patients with at least 2 assessments (n = 441), treatment with bDMARDs and tsDMARDs was discontinued in 247 (56%), 53% due to lack of efficacy. There was no association between the country region and treatment survival, but the main factors related to treatment discontinuation were disease duration (HR, 0.9; 95% confidence interval, 0.6-0.9) and lack of response (HR, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-1.7).

Conclusions: In Mexico, patients with rheumatic diseases show regional differences in their clinical features and prescription patterns, which may be related to regional disparities in health care access and sociodemographic characteristics.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to describe the frequency of pleuropulmonary computed tomography (CT) findings in patients with IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) and to compare clinical and laboratory characteristics between patients with and without pleuropulmonary involvement in chest CT.

Methods: This is a study conducted within the IgG4-RD study group of the Argentine Society of Rheumatology (GESAR IgG4) cohort of patients with IgG4-RD. Member centers of the group were requested to submit pulmonary CT scans of the patients. Lung lesions were classified into 4 subtypes: (1) nodules, (2) ground-glass opacity, (3) interstitial-alveolar involvement, and (4) bronchovascular involvement. The presence of pleural involvement and mediastinal adenopathy was also assessed.

Results: We examined data from 28 patients, with 17 (61%) showing pulmonary involvement. The subtypes of pulmonary involvement, in order of frequency, were as follows: type 4 (n = 17, 100%), type 3 (n = 10, 59%), type 2 (n = 6, 36%), and type 1 (n = 5, 29%). Pleural lesions were observed in 2 (12%) cases, and mediastinal adenopathies were found in 4 (23%) cases. No demographic, clinical, or laboratory differences were noted between patients with and without pulmonary involvement, except for serum levels of IgG4, which were higher among patients without pulmonary involvement (339.0 [293.1-1592.1 mg/dL] vs 2869 [1156.3-4037.4 mg/dL]; p = 0.022).

Conclusions: In this case series, the predominant subtype of pulmonary involvement was septal thickening and increased bronchovascular tissue. Patients with and without pleuropulmonary involvement exhibited similar clinical and laboratory manifestations, except for serum IgG4, which was higher in patients without pleuropulmonary involvement.

Background/objective: To determine if anti-RA33 antibodies, which can be seen in early forms of inflammatory arthritis, are present in patients with Lyme arthritis (LA).

Methods: Anti-RA33 antibodies were tested using a commercially available assay in patients with LA (n = 47) and compared with patients with erythema migrans who returned to health (EM RTH, n = 20) and those with post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD) (n = 50), characterized by noninflammatory arthralgia, as an observational comparative study utilizing Lyme-exposed patients from various original cohorts.

Results: We found that anti-RA33 was present in higher proportions of patients with LA (23.4% vs. 0%, p = 0.001) and PTLD (12.0% vs. 0%, p = 0.040) than healthy controls. There was also a trend toward a higher percentage of anti-RA33 positivity in patients with EM RTH versus controls (10.0% vs. 0%, p = 0.080). There were no statistically significant differences among groups of patients with LA, PTLD, and EM RTH ( p ≥ 0.567). There was also no difference in the proportion of patients with antibiotic-responsive LA compared with those with persistent synovitis after antibiotics, termed post-infectious LA, and there were no differences in clinical manifestations, musculoskeletal ultrasound evaluation (synovial hypertrophy, power Doppler, tendinopathy), or patient-reported outcomes based on anti-RA33 status.

Conclusions: This is the first study to identify anti-RA33 antibodies in patients with LA, though these antibodies did not identify a unique clinical subset of patients in this cohort. Unexpectedly, we found anti-RA33 antibodies at similar levels in patients with PTLD and EM RTH; further study is needed to determine the relevance of this finding.

Background/historical perspective: Facial asymmetry has been recognized and represented in Mesoamerican and South American pre-Hispanic cultures.

Summary: This study aims to describe and contextualize an ancient pre-Hispanic stone face carving from the Early Postclassic Period (1200-1500 AD) discovered during excavations for the construction of what is now the National Rehabilitation Institute in Mexico City. The remarkable facial asymmetry of the artifact, suggesting facial paralysis, is a focal point for an interdisciplinary study combining bioarchaeology, anthropology, paleopathology, and rheumatology.

Conclusions: Although most causes of facial paralysis are idiopathic and pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican populations may have had a higher incidence of infections that could be the leading triggering cause, the potential connection between facial paralysis and rheumatic diseases in pre-Hispanic or pre-Columbian contexts is still a topic of ongoing investigation. This task remains highly relevant for rheumatologists who have traced the history and evolution of rheumatic diseases.

Future research: To understand the potential causes of disabilities in ancient societies, a comprehensive, holistic, and transdisciplinary approach is needed, including evidence-based reviews to analyze the relationship between facial paralysis and rheumatic diseases.

Background: We aimed to estimate the risk of malignancy associated with ixekizumab in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and long-term extension studies (LTEs) in patients with rheumatological indications.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature up to June 2024 was performed to analyze the risk of malignancy associated with ixekizumab use in patients with psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis. The primary endpoint was overall malignancy risk in RCTs and LTEs. Meta-analyses of RCTs were performed when at least 3 studies had comparable outcome measures using Peto odds ratios. For LTEs, meta-analyses were performed using random-effects computing incidence rates (IRs) per 100 patient-years.

Results: Twelve articles, 4 LTEs and 8 pooled analyses, were included. Meta-analyses of RCTs for malignancy risk at week 24 showed a Peto odds ratio of 0.45 (0.11-1.86), with an I2 of 43.0%. When stratified according to the comparator, heterogeneity decreased. Malignancy risk comparing ixekizumab with placebo was 1.43 (0.18-11.53), with an I2 of 39.6%. Malignancy risk comparing ixekizumab with adalimumab was 0.11 (0.01-0.77), with an I2 of 0%. At week 52, the IR of all malignancies with ixekizumab was 0.31 (0.07-0.72), with an I2 of 18.9%. At 156 weeks, the IR of all malignancies with ixekizumab was 0.58 (0.29-0.96), with an I2 of 0%.

Conclusion: Ixekizumab appears to confer a low malignancy risk in patients treated for rheumatological indications. Patients with psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis appeared to be at similar risk, except for those with nonmelanoma skin cancer.