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- Alenius, Gerd-Marie, et al.
(författare)
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Interleukin-6 and soluble interleukin-2 receptor alpha-markers of inflammation in patients with psoriatic arthritis?
- 2009
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Ingår i: Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology. - 0392-856X .- 1593-098X. ; 27:1, s. 120-123
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a possible systemic effect of joint inflammation in contrast to skin disease only, by measuring IL-6 and IL-2sRalpha. METHODS: Two hundred and nineteen patients (111 male / 108 female, age 50.4+/-14.5 yrs (mean+/-SD)) with psoriasis were clinically and laboratory examined. 134 patients had inflammatory joint manifestations defined as peripheral arthritis and/or axial disease, of whom 37 had measurable inflammation, defined as ESR >25 mm/h and/or CRP >15 mg/L. RESULTS: Interleukin-6 was significantly higher in patients with joint disease and measurable inflammation ((median, Q1-Q3) 4.07, 0.92-14.60), and in patients without measured inflammation (1.22, 0.70-3.46), compared to patients with skin disease only (0.70, 0.70-1.73, p<0.001 and p=0.002 respectively). The difference between the two groups of patients with inflammatory joint manifestations was significant (p=0.001). The levels of IL-6 correlated with the actual number of joints affected with arthritis (p<0.001; rs=0.248), ESR (p<0.001; rs=0.459), CRP (p<0.001; rs=0.314) and IL-2sRalpha (p=0.002; rs=0.210). The levels of IL-2sRalpha. did not differ between the 3 groups. CONCLUSION: In this study, IL-6 was significantly higher in patients with psoriasis and inflammatory joint disease with or without routine measurable inflammatory activity compared with patients having psoriasis of the skin. We found that patients with psoriasis and joint inflammation may have systemic effects that could be captured by serum measurements of IL-6. Soluble IL-2Ralpha was not a marker of inflammation in this study.
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| 3. |
- Berglund, S, et al.
(författare)
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Atherothrombotic events in rheumatoid arthritis are predicted by homocysteine : a six-year follow-up study
- 2009
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Ingår i: Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology. - 0392-856X .- 1593-098X. ; 27:5, s. 822-825
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether homocysteine is linked to atherothrombotic (AT) events in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Analysis of homocysteine (Hcy) levels was carried out in 235 consecutive RA patients. They were followed-up for 6.5 years or until death, with analysis of AT risk factors and the type and length of DMARD and corticosteroid treatment. The disease history before inclusion was collected. Six categories of AT events were defined. In addition, the diagnosis of the patients at follow-up was co-analyzed with the nationwide population-based Swedish Inpatient Register and Death Register to certify all events. RESULTS: The Hcy level was found to be higher in males (p<0.05) and increased with age (p<0.001). Patients with folic acid supplementation had significantly lower levels, while those on corticosteroids had higher levels. High Hcy levels predicted AT events (n=48) during a 6.5-year follow-up adjusted for age and male sex in a logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSION: In this study, RA patients on folic acid had lower Hcy levels. High Hcy levels (in addition to age, sex and diabetes) predicted AT event prospectively.
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| 7. |
- Galeotti, L, et al.
(författare)
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Circulating survivin indicates severe course of juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Clinical and experimental rheumatology. - 0392-856X. ; 26:2, s. 373-8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Survivin is an anti-apoptotic protein that has been recently suggested as a predictive marker of joint destruction in adult rheumatoid arthritis. We assessed the presence of extracellular survivin in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). METHODS: Survivin levels were assessed in the circulation of 46 patients with JIA and in the age- and gender-matched controls (n=46) having no inflammatory disease, by ELISA. Survivin levels were analyzed with respect to the onset type and the activity of the joint disease. The intensity of inflammation and cartilage turnover was measured as levels of IL-6, serum amyloid A protein (SAA), and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), respectively. RESULTS: The levels of extracellular survivin were significantly higher in JIA compared to the controls (p=0.0002). High levels of survivin (above mean + 2SD of the controls) were detected in 8/46 (17% JIA patients. High survivin expression was associated with polyarticular onset, active phase of arthritis. In contrast, survivin was neither related to the levels of IL-6, SAA, nor to COMP. CONCLUSION: Circulating survivin is expressed in a significant group of patients with JIA being associated to a severe course of the disease. It may be potentially used to select children with unfavorable prognosis of JIA who are in need of active pharmacologic treatment.
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| 8. |
- Jin, Tao, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of short-term therapies with biologics on prothrombotic biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Clinical and experimental rheumatology. - 0392-856X. ; 27:3, s. 491-4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Imbalance of haemostasis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) contributes to future risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Prothrombotic molecules, e.g. fibrinogen, D-dimer, and tPA are elevated in plasma of RA patients, being associated to CVD. There is no imformation about the influence of biological drugs, e.g. anti-CD20 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antibodies on these prothrombotic molecules. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether anti-TNF and anti-CD20 therapies modify the profiles of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with RA. METHODS: The expression of prothrombotic molecules in plasma was investigated in 10 RA patients before and after treatment with TNF-alpha antibodies and in another 12 RA patients before and after anti-CD20 treatment. RESULTS: Both anti-TNF and anti-CD20 infusions gave rise to clear clinical improvement. However, only anti-CD20 infusion significantly (p=0.05) reduced concentration of fibrinogen (p=0.05), D-dimer (p<0.001), as well as tPA levels (p<0.01). In contrast, in TNF antibody treated patients only tPA levels were significantly decreased following the treatment (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Infusion of CD20 antibodies to the patients with active RA led to a clearly reduced plasma levels of predictors of CVD indicating that this treatment, apart from its anti-inflammatory properties, may reduce the risk for future CVD in RA.
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| 9. |
- Knight, Ann, et al.
(författare)
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What is the significance in routine care of c-ANCA/PR3-ANCA in the abscence of systemic vasculitis? : A case series
- 2008
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Ingår i: Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology. - 0392-856X .- 1593-098X. ; 26:3, s. S53-S56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective. ANCA has come to play an important role in diagnosing vasculitis. In selected populations c-ANCA/PR3-ANCA has a high specificity and sensitivity for vasculitis. In clinical practice, how individuals with c-ANCA/PR3-ANCA but without sufficient evidence of systemic vasculitis should be managed is unclear. We therefore retrospectively assessed the disease panorama and outcome in a consecutive series of individuals with c-ANCA/PR3-ANCA, and studied in detail those individuals who turned out not to fulfil criteria for vasculitic disease.Methods. The study population consisted of 74 consecutive patients who all had a positive test for C-ANCA and PR3-ANCA between 1992 and 2002 at the Immunology laboratory at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. The patients' medical files were reviewed and their diagnosis re-evaluated through June 2006.Results. 18 of the 74 ANCA-positive individuals did not present clinical evidence supportive of, or insufficient to support, a diagnosis of systemic vasculitis, but presented a range of other diseases. During a mean follow-up of 6.8 years, none of these 18 patients developed vasculitis.Conclusions. Individuals with a positive c-ANCA and PR3-ANCA but no vasculitis at the time of testing run an unknown but likely small risk of later developing vasculitis. In this group, a positive ANCA may represent background noise (borderline titres) or be a marker of inflammatory activity rather than of vasculitic disease (high titres).
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| 10. |
- Lampa, J
(författare)
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Cerebral inflammation in fibromyalgia
- 2009
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Ingår i: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY. - 0392-856X. ; 27:2, s. 183-183
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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