Zeitschrift fur Rheumatologie最新文献

Background: Real-world data for filgotinib, a Janus kinase (JAK)1 inhibitor, are limited in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Objectives: To explore real-world filgotinib use in patients with RA in Germany.

Materials and methods: This retrospective chart review included patients aged ≥ 18 years with confirmed moderate to severe RA who initiated filgotinib before December 1, 2021, with ≥ 6 months of medical records available prior to filgotinib initiation or after initial diagnosis. Patient characteristics, prior treatments, reasons for initiating/discontinuing filgotinib, disease activity, dose adjustments and concomitant treatments were recorded.

Results: In total, 301 patients from 20 German rheumatology outpatient units were included. One-third were aged ≥ 65 years and almost half had ≥ 1 cardiovascular (CV) risk factor. Most patients initiated filgotinib as monotherapy (83.7%; 12.7% of whom with glucocorticoids) and at the 200 mg dose (84.7%); higher proportions of those initiating the 100 versus 200 mg dose were aged ≥ 65 years and had renal impairment or ≥ 1 CV risk factor. Oral administration (78.4%), fast onset of action (66.8%) and administration as monotherapy (65.4%) were the most common reasons for initiating filgotinib. At 12 months, 41 (18.4%) patients had discontinued filgotinib, most commonly due to lack of effectiveness. After 6‑months of follow-up, 36.8% of patients had achieved Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) remission and 45.6% had achieved CDAI low disease activity.

Conclusions: In clinical practice in Germany, reasons for initiating filgotinib in patients with RA were related to dosing flexibility and general JAK inhibitor attributes. Filgotinib was used predominantly as monotherapy and was effective and generally well tolerated; however, longer-term data in larger, prospective cohorts are needed.

Background: Patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) often experience chronic pain and inflammation, resulting in physical impairments, reduced mobility and decreased physical activity. The modified short questionnaire to assess health-enhancing physical activity (mSQUASH) was developed to assess daily physical activity in patients with axSpA.

Objective: To translate, cross-culturally adapt and linguistically validate the original mSQUASH into German for patients with axSpA.

Methods: The original mSQUASH was translated from Dutch into German using a multistep process (Beaton method) with forward-backward translations into German by bilingual Dutch-German lay people and experts. Any remaining discrepancies were resolved by a scientific committee, resulting in a prefinal German version. Field testing with cognitive debriefing interviews with patients with axSpA from diverse backgrounds led to a final German version.

Results: Minor discrepancies, primarily related to formalities, semantic errors and syntax were found during translations. These were addressed, resulting in slight wording modifications. The prefinal German version was validated through cognitive debriefing by 10 patients with axSpA, confirming its linguistic validity and equivalence to the Dutch version.

Conclusion: Overall, this study confirmed the final German mSQUASH as a comprehensive measurement instrument for daily physical activity. It can now be used as a patient-reported outcome by German patients with axSpA. This can enable cross-linguistic comparisons and expanding its utility across language barriers.

Neutropenia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a problem that often needs to be addressed. Side effects of basic antirheumatic treatment, infections or substrate deficiencies are common causes; however, T‑cell large granular lymphocytic (T-LGL) leukemia, a mature T‑cell neoplasm, can also lead to autoimmune cytopenia. The T‑LGL leukemia can be associated not only with RA but also with other autoimmune diseases or neoplasms. Correspondingly, increases in clonal T cells, natural killer T (NKT) cells and LGL cells are found in the peripheral blood. A T‑cell receptor PCR and flow cytometry (or at least a blood smear) are therefore necessary to diagnose T‑LGL leukemia. The presence of clonal T cells alone is usually not pathological. A distinction must be made from Felty's syndrome (consisting of the clinical triad of arthritis, leukopenia, splenomegaly), which does not require the two T‑LGL leukemia criteria mentioned. The treatment for both entities (with underlying RA) is methotrexate and, if insufficiently effective, rituximab.

Acute and chronic pain play an important part in the care of patients with musculoskeletal diseases. For rheumatologists this represents a frequent challenge. For the management of chronic pain conditions in rheumatology those that cannot be explained by objective tissue damage are particularly important-which makes patients' subjective assessment of pain a central building block of the diagnosis. For the diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) standardized questionnaires such as the Widespread Pain Index (WPI) and the Symptom Severity Score (SSS) are used. In connection with the recent global SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic protracted courses and health problems have been described, which have been termed long COVID syndrome and have some similarities but, as is shown in the following, also demonstrate some differences from FM. There has recently been an interesting scientific controversy that culminated in a pros and cons session at the EULAR congress 2024, following several publications. The arguments and citations exchanged have served as the basis for the overview produced here, which is intended to offer rheumatologists confronted with such clinical pictures assistance with the assessment of these diseases, even if the results of the studies presented are definitely controversial.

Chronic pain is a common problem in rheumatology. Nociceptive pain is distinguished from neuropathic and nociplastic pain. Mechanistically, the former is explained by persistent inflammation, for example. Included in the second category is nerve damage of various causes. In contrast, nociplastic pain is not caused by tissue damage or a lesion in the somatosensory nerve system. It is caused by an altered sensation of pain through the modulation of stimulus processing. The concept of central sensitization, together with further neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms, best explains such pain conditions. Fibromyalgia (FM) plays a big part in rheumatology - on the one hand, as a differential diagnosis, and on the other, because the management of inflammatory rheumatic conditions is made more difficult by the simultaneous occurrence of FM. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, persistent pain syndromes with similarities to FM have been described after COVID-19 infection. There is an increasing scientific controversy whether the so-called long Covid syndrome is an actual entity or "only" a variant of FM. This discussion and the current state of knowledge on the problem are the subject of this review.

An inflammatory rheumatic shoulder can be assessed as a forgotten joint. Apparent problems and deformities of the hands and feet are prioritized in the perception of rheumatic patients. In contrast, however, involvement of the shoulder joint in the context of an inflammatory rheumatic disease is very high with up to 85% [2]. Loss of shoulder function and pain can be well compensated for a long time. This means that further diagnostics are only carried out when the joint is already destroyed and joint-preserving treatment options are obsolete. The various tools of evidence-based conservative treatment can be used to relieve pain and improve function. The cause of joint destruction, inflammatory synovitis, must be treated with medication or, if there is no response to basic immunomodulatory treatment, invasively. In order to contain further destruction of the joint, injections of glucocorticoids and radiosynoviorthesis are initially carried out. This should be followed by arthroscopic synovectomy of the shoulder joint due to better results, especially in early stages of destruction (LDE 0-3).

Background: Osteoporosis is a widespread disease defined by a reduction in bone mass and structure, thereby increasing the risk of fragility fractures. Treatment typically involves specific medications, which either inhibit bone resorption (antiresorptive) or stimulate bone formation (anabolic) and may potentially influence the healing of osteoporotic fractures. On the other hand, metabolic disorders, immune system dysfunctions or circulatory problems can impair fracture healing. Therefore, the targeted use of osteoporosis medications could be a strategy to promote the healing of impaired fractures.

Objective: The aim of this study is to provide a current overview of the effects of osteoporosis medications approved in Germany on fracture healing. The focus is on the potential influence of these medications in the context of osteoporosis treatment. Additionally, the current state of research is examined to explore to what extent the targeted use of these medications could improve fracture healing.

Material and methods: A literature search was conducted in the PubMed database using topic-specific keywords. Preclinical studies, clinical trials, review articles and meta-analyses were considered to present the current scientific knowledge with clinical relevance.

Results: Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that specific osteoporosis medications do not have a clinically relevant negative impact on the healing of fragility fractures. Osteoanabolic substances even tend to have a positive effect on fracture healing in both normal and impaired healing processes; however, the available studies are limited and none of the medications have been approved for this specific use.

Discussion: Osteoporosis medications with antiresorptive or osteoanabolic effects are primarily used to treat osteoporosis, especially after fragility fractures, to reduce the risk of further fractures. There is no clinically relevant impairment of fracture healing due to these medications. Further studies would be required to obtain approval for these medications specifically to improve fracture healing.

The guidelines on physiotherapy and exercise for osteoporosis from 2008 have recently been extensively revised on the basis of new scientific findings and possible applications. The S3 guidelines have not yet been approved by consensus and the planned completion date (Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany, AWMF online, registry number 183-002) is autumn 2024. Based on the publication in Issue 3 Osteology (August 2023), key points of the guidelines on physical training and fracture prophylaxis are summarized in abridged form. These are practice-oriented, evidence-based recommendations for optimal training for fracture prevention.

Infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Among these, musculoskeletal infections represent a relevant proportion as patients with rheumatoid arthritis face an increased risk of developing septic arthritis and prosthesis infections. The causes are multifactorial. In addition to immunosuppressive treatment, risk factors of infection in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients include repeated intra-articular joint punctures, an increased rate of joint replacement surgery, damaged joint structure and comorbidities. The use of glucocorticoids and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitors, especially in the first 6 months of treatment, increase the risk of septic arthritis and periprosthetic joint infections. In addition, an increased disease activity could also be identified as a risk factor. Under immunosuppressive therapy rare pathogens such as Candida and mycobacteria can cause the infection and should be considered when there is a lack of clinical response to antibiotic treatment.