cities reveals a community of expectation, and her exploitation of jokes and epigrams can be taken even further to show the widespread penetration of medical ideas and medical theories. She looks at the evidence from the writings of famous patients, including Cicero, Seneca, and Aristides (where she underestimates Weinreich's contributions), as well as exemplary tales of great or infamous docto...

Elimination of potential self-reactive T cells in the thymus is crucial for preventing the onset of autoimmune diseases. Epithelial cell subsets localized in thymic medulla [medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs)] contribute to this process by supplying a wide range of self-antigens that are otherwise expressed in a tissue-specific manner (TSAs). Expression of some TSAs in mTECs is controlle...

Autoimmune regulator (Aire) mutations result in autoimmune polyendocrinopathy candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy (APECED), which manifests as multi-organ autoimmunity and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC). Indendritic cells (DCs), pattern recognition receptors (PRR), such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs), are closely involved in the recognition of various pathogens, activating the intercellula...

ingrowing toenail and onychogryposis cause much disability and discomfort. Pain, with inflammation or sepsis, is the presenting symptom of ingrowing toenail, and the disease is common in adolescents and young adults. Lloyd-Davies and Brill (1963) showed that correct trimming of the nails, with general care of the feet, socks and shoes did much to control and prevent the disease. If this treatme...

BACKGROUND Autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED, APS1) is an autosomal recessive disease exceptionally common in Finland. Most patients have chronic oral candidiasis from early childhood and this infection has been shown to be carcinogenic. Hence, patients receive repeated treatment and prophylactic courses of antifungals throughout life. In Finland, 92 patient...

OBJECTIVES The provisional ACR/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) definition of remission in RA requires a score of ≤1 on the patient global assessment (PGA, 0-10 scale). We explored the relation between the PGA criterion and the patient's clinical disease state in an observational dataset. METHODS Data of 512 newly diagnosed RA patients of the Dutch Rheumatoid Arthritis Monitoring (D...

Primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) in the pediatric population (0-18 yr) is most commonly attributed to congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which occurs in about 1 in 15,000 births, followed by Addison's disease, with an assumed autoimmune etiology. However, molecular advances have increased the number of possible diagnoses. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence and etio...

OBJECTIVES Patients with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) have an increased risk of atherothrombotic complications. There are limited data regarding the outcome of patients with APS who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Accordingly, we aimed to assess the long-term outcomes of these patients. METHODS Nineteen APS patients who underwent PCI between the years 2003 and 20...

Mutations in the human AIRE gene (hAIRE) result in the development of an autoimmune disease named APECED (autoimmune polyendocrinopathy candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy; OMIM 240300). Previously, we have cloned hAIRE and shown that it codes for a putative transcription-associated factor. Here we report the cloning and characterization of Aire, the murine ortholog of hAIRE. Comparative genomic s...

AIMS To determine the influence of prostaglandin analogues (PGAs) on corneal biomechanical properties in patients undergoing chronic treatment for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). METHODS Prospective, interventional case-control study. 70 eyes from 35 patients with POAG on chronic PGA therapy were recruited. One eye per patient underwent PGA cessation for 6 weeks while the contralateral ey...