BACKGROUND Much interest has been shown recently in the pathogenic role of B cells in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) owing to the marked clinical responses to anti-CD20 treatment in RA. CASE REPORT A patient with X linked agammaglobulinaemia (XLA) presented with an erosive symmetric polyarthritis with histological features of RA, including formation of a destructive pannus. Furthermore, the patien...

• Vol 7 • November 2005 746 Subcutaneous nodules with prominent inflammatory features are a diagnostic challenge [1]. The differential diagnosis includes ganglion, cyst, space-occupying lesion, tenosynovitis, rheumatoid nodule, infection, and tophaceous nodule. An imaging technique that could specifically demonstrate monosodium urate deposits within tissues can be extremely helpful, especially ...

We report the case of a 42-year-old female with a 5-year history of rheumatoid arthritis treated with Rituximab and Azathioprine. Three months after the initiation of Azathioprine, the patient started with dry cough and noted the rapid development of multiple subcutaneous nodules on her right leg. CT scan of the chest demonstrates pulmonary nodulosis. Skin biopsy was compatible with rheumatoid ...

A collagenase and a neutral protease have been insolated and characterized from primary cultures obtained from rheumatoid subcutaneous nodules. Release of both active enzymes was maximal between the 3rd and 7th days of culture and was stimulated by the presence of small amounts of colchicine (0.1 mug/ml) added to the culture medium. Both the protease and the collagenase from nodule tissue were ...

IgM rheumatoid factor was assayed by three routine methods: latex fixation; haemagglutination; and end point laser nephelometry in 69 patients with definite or classical rheumatoid arthritis and 58 patients with other non-rheumatoid arthropathies, selected prospectively according to the American Rheumatism Association clinical criteria. The operators of the assays were unaware of the clinical d...

Rheumatoid nodules occur frequently in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and are the most common cutaneous manifestation of the disease. Although uncommon, rheumatoid nodules may also occur on cardiac valves, where they may be large and clinically significant. They may embolize and cause stroke. They may cause regurgitant murmurs, or they may result in valvular destruction. Echocardiographical...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common systemic connective tissue disease. Signs of systemic inflammation include constitutional features (e.g. profound fatigue, influenza-like symptoms, fever, sweats and weight loss) and extra-articular manifestations (ExRA). The most frequent of such manifestations, the subcutaneous rheumatoid nodule, has been reported in up to one third of patients wit...

The rheumatoid polyarthritis is the most frequent chronic polyarthritis. It affects essentially the woman between 40 and 60 years. Rheumatic subcutaneous nodules and tenosynovitis are usually associated with seropositive symptomatic rheumatoid polyarthritis. It is, however, rare that they constitute the essential clinical expression of the disease. In this case, it makes dispute another excepti...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic disorder that is chronic in nature and difficult to treat. RA presents in many variants. Here we present an interesting case only seldom described before. Our patient presented to emergency room with acute shortness of breath and was seen to have acute pulmonary edema. Patient later had urgent echocardiography which revealed severe mitral regurgitation fr...