Major achievements have been reached in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis during past decades due to the recognition of methotrexate as an anchor drug for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, due to the notion of a treatment window of opportunity in patients with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis necessitating early aggressive therapy, due to the development of biologics and due to remission ...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic condition with substantial morbidity that can now be treated with disease-modifying biologic agents that target tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or related mechanisms. The anti-TNF biologic agents are available in either intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous dose forms. The biologic agents with an indication for rheumatoid arthritis and administere...

Corresponding author: Jenn-Haung Lai, MD, PhD, Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, No. 325, Section 2, ChengKung Road, Neihu 114, Taipei, Taiwan. E-mail: [email protected] A surge in demand in the field of therapy for chronic destructive arthritis has stimulated the development of new, more effective and less ...

OBJECTIVES The present study aimed at describing the implementation process of a national registry in a developing country (Brazil) and at reporting the main preliminary results of the BiobadaBrasil registry. MATERIAL AND METHODS Through a PANLAR agreement, the Biobadaser protocol was used as a model for implementing the new registry in our country. During the first two years of this effort, ...

Polyarteritis nodosa is a rare vasculitis of childhood. Cutaneous PAN (cPAN) is limited to the skin, muscles, joints, and peripheral nerves. We describe a 7.5-year-old girl with cPAN presenting initially as massive cervical edema who later went on to develop subcutaneous nodules, livedo reticularis, myositis, arthritis, and mononeuritis multiplex. The use of corticosteroids resulted in initial ...

Biologic therapies in rheumatoid arthritis are now part of standard practice for disease that proves difficult to control with conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. While anti-tumor necrosis factor therapies have been commonly used, other targeted biologic therapies with different mechanisms of action are becoming increasingly available. Abatacept is a recombinant fusion protein ...

Mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome (MC) is a systemic vasculitis involving kidneys, joints, skin, and peripheral nerves. While many autoimmune, lymphoproliferative, and neoplastic disorders have been associated with this disorder, hepatitis C virus (HCV) is known to be the etiologic agent in the majority of patients. Therefore, clinical research has focused on anti-viral drugs and, more recently, ...