INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to examine whether circulating levels of the proinflammatory glycoprotein tenascin-C (TNC) are useful as an activity-specific or predictive biomarker in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS Serum TNC levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at inception visit in a prospective cohort of 59 SLE patients, and in 65 healthy controls...

BACKGROUND Intravenous cyclophosphamide (IVCY) pulse therapy has been used for lupus nephritis since the latter half of the 1980s; it has been shown to be effective for lupus nephritis and vasculitis and has become a standard therapy for the diffuse proliferative type of lupus nephritis in adults. IVCY therapy has also come to be used in children. This paper reports the long-term outcomes of IV...

Objective—To examine the relation between fatigue, disease activity, damage, and quality of life measures in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods—Consecutive patients attending the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic were studied. Disease activity was assessed using the SLEDAI and SLAM-R and damage using the SLICC/ACR Damage index. Fatigue was measured by the Fatigue Severit...

OBJECTIVE Myocardial involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has great importance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the rotation and twisting mechanics of the left ventricle (LV) in patients with SLE. METHODS Forty-three patients fulfilled at least four of the American College of Rheumatology criteria for SLE and 30 individuals as controls were included in the study. SLE disease...

Background Data are limited concerning the distribution of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) scores among patients with SLE in clinical practice and characteristics specific SLEDAI scores. Objectives To investigate patient demographics, status, treatment patterns, reported outcomes (PROs), overall stratified by score. Methods were drawn from Adelphi Real World IV (202...

Methods Cross-sectional study. 89 patients with diagnosis SLE (1986 ACR criteria) from a rheumatology center at a pediatric hospital were evaluated. Medical records were reviewed registering the following variables: sex, mean age, score SLEDAI, organ involvement, current pharmacological treatment and autoimmune profile. Descriptive analysis was done for qualitative and categorical variables (pe...

Background While treatment of Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has substantially improved, a subset patients experiences severe progressive disease despite T- and B cell targeted therapy. Furthermore, drug-free remission seroconversion is difficult to achieve in SLE date Objectives To study the safety, tolerability, preliminary efficacy deep depletion using autologous CD19 chimeric antigen re...

OBJECTIVE The interleukin 17 (IL-17) cytokine family is involved in a number of chronic inflammatory diseases. In spite of contradictory findings and a lack of causality in clinical studies, IL-17 inhibition for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has regained attention as a potential therapeutic pathway, after demonstrating disease-modifying capabilities in ankylosing spondylitis. We investigat...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate biomechanical and ultrasound (US) abnormalities in SLE patients as compared with controls and to assess the relationship between these abnormalities and SLE activity. METHODS Fifty-four consecutive female patients with SLE with and without foot pain and 60 female controls (30 with foot pain and 30 without foot pain) were recruited. SLE activity was assessed by the Syste...