Rheumatology

BackgroundRheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic rheumatological condition which causes inflammation of both the joint lining and extra-articular sites. It affects around 1% of the UK population and, if not properly treated, can lead joint damage, disability, and significant socioeconomic burden. The risk of long-term damage is reduced if treatment is started in an early disease stage with treatment in the first 3 months being associated with significantly improved clinical outcomes. However, tr...

ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop and assess the reliability, validity, and sensitivity of Japanese version of the University of California Los Angeles Scleroderma Clinical Trial Consortium Gastrointestinal Tract (GIT) Instrument 2.0 (the GIT score), as an evaluation tool for GIT symptoms in systemic sclerosis (SSc). MethodsJapanese version of the GIT score was constructed using the forward-backward method. The reliability and validity of this instrument were evaluated in a cohort of 38 SSc ...

ObjectiveRegular imaging by conventional radiography to assess for joint damage is a cornerstone in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Scoring systems to quantify such damage, such as the widely used Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) score, are limited by the requirement of time and experienced staff as well as intra- and inter-rater variability. To alleviate these problems, autoscoRA, a fully automated scoring system to assign SvdH scores to radiographs of the hands and feet was developed. ...

BackgroundTo characterize disease course and remission in a longitudinal observational study of newly diagnosed, initially treatment naive patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MethodsPatients with early untreated seropositive RA were recruited from 28 UK centres. Multiple clinical and laboratory measures were collected every 3 months for up to 18 months. Disease activity was measured using DAS28-CRP and SDAI. Logistic regression models examined clinical predictors of 6-month re...

ObjectivesPharmacological management of axial spondylarthritis (axSpA) seek to control inflammation. Even if successful, available evidence suggests that many patients continue to experience pain. The aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence and characteristics of severe pain, among persons with axSpA. MethodsThe Scotland Registry for Ankylosing Spondylitis (SIRAS) collected clinical and patient-reported data from adults seen in secondary care in Scotland with a clinical diagnos...

BackgroundSulfasalazine induced cytopenia, nephrotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity is uncommon during long-term treatment. Some guidelines recommend three monthly monitoring blood-tests indefinitely while others recommend stopping monitoring after one year. To rationalise monitoring we developed and validated a prognostic model for clinically significant blood, liver, or kidney toxicity during established sulfasalazine treatment. DesignRetrospective cohort study. SettingUK primary-care. Data from C...

IntroductionCost and drug toxicity often deter prolonged therapeutic use of anti-TNF agents in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). A planned study was completed to endorse our clinic-based observation of long-term relief following short-term administration of an anti-TNF agent. Methods50 consenting patients with symptomatic active chronic AS under rheumatology care in a community clinic were enrolled; naive for anti-TNF. 40 mg standard biosimilar Adalimumab (Bs-ADA, Exemptia) was injected subcutaneous...

OBJECTIVESTo investigate the incidence of COVID-19 in a cohort of adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases receiving targeted biologic and synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (tDMARDs) and to explore the possible effect of these treatments in the clinical expression of COVID-19. METHODSA cross-sectional study comprising of a telephone survey and electronic health records review was performed including all adult and paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases treated wi...

BackgroundRisk factors and screening strategies for rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) have received limited evaluation in patients with early RA. We investigated RA-ILD prevalence, risk factors, and the performance of proposed RA-ILD screening methodologies in a multicenter, prospective study of patients with early RA. MethodsParticipants with early RA, defined as being within two years of RA diagnosis, were enrolled at five US sites and assessed with high-resol...

ObjectivesWe aimed to estimate how rheumatology healthcare use has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and determine demographic characteristics associated with observed changes in healthcare use. MethodsUsing three primary and secondary care electronic health record datasets in England (with the approval of NHS England), Scotland, and Wales, we identified individuals with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) before 01/04/2019. We determined the proportion of people with rheumatology hospit...

Introduction/ObjectivesAnti-centromere antibodies are associated with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (lcSSc) and a more favorable prognosis. The centromere HEp-2 pattern (AC-3) suggests the presence of antibodies against CENP antigens, mainly CENP-B and A. This study analyzed the clinical and demographic associations of anti-centromere antibodies in a cohort of patients exclusively with the lcSSc form of SSc. The frequency of CENP-B and CENP-A reactivity in samples with the AC-3 pattern wa...

IntroductionPeripheral Sensory Neuropathy (PSN) is an under-recognized feature in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Moreover, SSc foot involvement is frequent but poorly investigated. We aimed to provide a detailed characterization of foot peripheral neuropathy in a large cohort of SSc patients, describing its associations with disease-specific features, physical disability and Quality of Life (QoL). MethodsSSc patients and healthy controls (HC) comparable for age and gender, were enrolled in a cross-s...

ObjectiveDespite significant improvements in diagnosis delay and treatment strategies, the burden of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) remains high. The objective of the study was to assess the association between diagnosis delay, disease activity and burden on daily life (BoDL) in a large sample of European patients with SLE. MethodsIn May 2020, Lupus Europe, the European umbrella patient association for SLE, conducted a multilingual anonymous online cross-sectional study to individuals with ...

ObjectivesInvestigate the prevalence and mortality impact of interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and non-RA comparators. MethodsWe analyzed associations between ILA, RA, and mortality in COPDGene, a multicenter prospective cohort study of current or former smokers, excluding known interstitial lung disease (ILD) or bronchiectasis. All participants had research chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) reviewed by a sequential reading method to classify ILA ...

ObjectiveTo describe the incidence, clinical course, and predictive factors of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection in a cohort of rheumatological patients residing in New Delhi (National Capital Region), India. MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional, random telephonic survey from 20th April to 20th July 2020 on patients with rheumatic diseases. Patients were interviewed with a predesigned questionnaire. The incidence of COVID-19 in the general population was obtained from open access governmen...

ObjectiveThe Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to widespread concerns about the risk of infection in patients with rheumatic diseases (RD) receiving disease modifying ant-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and other immunosuppressants (IS). MethodsA SurveyMonkey(R) based electronic survey was conducted amongst members of the Indian Rheumatology Association to understand the need for changes in prevailing practices. ResultsOf the 861 invitees, 221 responded. In the wake of the pandemic, ...

Background and PurposeTripartite motif-containing protein 72 (TRIM72) mediates tissue-repair following injury in several organs, including muscle and lung. Autoantibodies directed against TRIM72 (anti-TRIM72) have been identified in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and disrupt TRIM72 function in vitro. We hypothesized that IIM patients positive for anti-TRIM72 antibodies would have a more severe clinical phenotype. MethodsSera from IIM patient (antisynthetase syndrome [ASy...

ObjectiveTo assess the comparative efficacy and safety of approved biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), biosimilars, and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (tsDMARDs) for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had inadequate responses to methotrexate (MTX). Results53 eligible studies were identified and 44 studies were included in a network meta-analysis. Using Surface Under the Cumulative Ranking Curve (SUCRA), tofacitinib (10 mg bid) with MTX [R...

BackgroundRheumatoid arthritis (RA) lacks reliable biomarkers that predict disease evolution on an individual basis, potentially leading to over- and undertreatment. Deep neural networks learn from former experiences on a large scale and can be used to predict future events as a potential tool for personalized clinical assistance. ObjectiveTo investigate deep learning for the prediction of individual disease activity in RA. MethodsDemographic and disease characteristics from over 9500 patients...

ObjectivesTo evaluate and compare the individual therapeutic efficacy of NICE-recommended physical activity (PA) and pharmacological interventions on pain amongst adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MethodsA systematic-review and meta-analysis of studies published between March 1988 and April 2025 was conducted across seven databases; AMED, MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus, SPORTDiscus, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and reference lists. Included were monotherapeutic randomised controlled trial...