Arthritis research & therapy
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Apr 2012
Multicenter StudyA multicenter study confirms CD226 gene association with systemic sclerosis-related pulmonary fibrosis.
CD226 genetic variants have been associated with a number of autoimmune diseases and recently with systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to test the influence of CD226 loci in SSc susceptibility, clinical phenotypes and autoantibody status in a large multicenter European population. ⋯ Our data suggest that the tested genetic variants do not individually influence SSc susceptibility but a CD226 three-variant haplotype is related with genetic predisposition to SSc-related pulmonary fibrosis.
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Apr 2012
Comparative StudyBone formation rather than inflammation reflects ankylosing spondylitis activity on PET-CT: a pilot study.
Positron Emission Tomography - Computer Tomography (PET-CT) is an interesting imaging technique to visualize Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) activity using specific PET tracers. Previous studies have shown that the PET tracers [18F]FDG and [11C](R)PK11195 can target inflammation (synovitis) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and may therefore be useful in AS. Another interesting tracer for AS is [18F]Fluoride, which targets bone formation. In a pilot setting, the potential of PET-CT in imaging AS activity was tested using different tracers, with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and conventional radiographs as reference. ⋯ Our PET-CT data suggest that AS activity is reflected by bone activity (formation) rather than inflammation. The results also show the potential value of PET-CT for imaging AS activity using the bone tracer [18F]Fluoride. In contrast to active RA, inflammation tracers [18F]FDG and [11C](R)PK11195 appeared to be less useful for AS imaging.