Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) induces rapid remission. However, osteoporosis and its management remains a problem. The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) evaluates the risk of malnutrition-related complications in elderly patients and has been shown to be a significant predictor of many diseases. We evaluated the cor...

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) reflect the patient's perspective and are used in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) routine clinical practice. Patient global assessment (PGA) is one of the most widely used PROs in RA practice and research and is included in several composite scores such as the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28). PGA is often assessed by a single question with a 0-10 or 0-100 resp...

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the efficacy of an alkaline mineral supplement as a means of suppressing disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and to check whether any change occurs in the circulating beta-endorphin concentration. Thirty-seven patients with moderately active RA of at least two years duration, who were receiving stable pharmacological treatment, ...

BACKGROUND A peripheral blood interferon (IFN) signature (i.e., elevated type I interferon response gene [IRG] expression) has been described in a subset of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In the present study, we systematically assessed the association between this IRG expression and clinical parameters. METHODS Expression of 19 IRGs was determined in peripheral blood from 182 conse...

BACKGROUND The aim was to analyze characteristics that predict remission induction and subsequent loss of remission in patients with moderately active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who received full-dose combination etanercept plus methotrexate induction therapy followed by reduced-dose etanercept or etanercept withdrawal. METHODS Patients with Disease Activity Score based on 28-joint count (DAS2...

To determine prognostic factors of clinically relevant radiographic progression (CRRP) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in clinical practice.We performed a multicenter prospective study in Japan of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD)-naive RA patients with moderate to high disease activity treated with conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) at study entry. We lo...

background: rheumatoid arthritis (ra) is a chronic, systemic, inflammatory disease with autoimmune etiology, characterized by synovial inflammation and destruction of joint cartilage and bone. there are controversial data about the profile of interleukin-17 (il-17a), interleukin-4 (il-4), and interferon-gamma (infî³), indicating in some studies the key role of il-17, while in others the th1 cyt...

Background Although all patients present unique biopsychosocial contexts, the care of inflammatory arthritis is particularly complicated by interaction multiple factors. Advocates patient- centered identify that best way to manage complex through comprehensive treatment strategies can adapt nuances individual contexts. Recently published disease specific, patient national clinical guidelines fo...

INTRODUCTION The disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis has improved during the past decade. The availability of new drugs and also a better assessment of the disease have been proposed to be responsible for this improvement. In the present work we estimate the effect of these factors on disease activity and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis at the beginning of the ...