Rheumatology international
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Letter Case Reports
A 5-year-old boy with only fever and giant coronary aneurysms: the enigma of Kawasaki disease?
Epidemiological case definition of Kawasaki disease (KD) by the American Heart Association requires the presence of fever and four of the following: eye signs, oral mucosal changes, skin rashes, limb edema, and unilateral cervical lymphadenopathy. Incomplete KD is a well-known entity where there is lack of some of mucocutaneous features, and this occurs more often in infants. We report a 5-year-old boy with KD and giant coronary aneurysms, who presented only with fever and there is complete lack of skin and mucosal manifestations at presentation.
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Physical exercise is recognized as a component of the evidence-based guidelines for treatment of fibromyalgia. Walking is a low-moderate intensity exercise easily adaptable to a fibromyalgia patient's situation. The present study aims to estimate the prevalence of unsupervised walking for exercise in women with fibromyalgia, to describe their level of physical activity and to identify their predictors among socio-demographic, symptom perception and medical advice to walk. ⋯ The results indicate the importance of doctors' advice in promoting walking. Symptom perception and socio-demographic characteristics were weak predictors. Further work is required to examine other determinants of these low levels.
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Observational Study
Treatment persistence among patients with immune-mediated rheumatic disease newly treated with subcutaneous TNF-alpha inhibitors and costs associated with non-persistence.
The main objective of this study was to describe real-world treatment persistence with subcutaneous tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors (SC-TNFi) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, or rheumatoid arthritis [collectively immune-mediated rheumatic disease, (IMRD)] in Sweden. A secondary objective was to describe potential effects on health care resource utilization (HCRU) cost from non-persistence. Patients were identified through filled prescriptions for adalimumab (ADA), etanercept (ETA), certolizumab pegol (CZP), and golimumab (GLM) between 5/6/2010 and 12/31/2012 from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. ⋯ SC-TNFi-naïve IMRD patients initiating treatment with GLM had significantly higher persistence rates than patients initiating treatment with ADA or ETA in Sweden. Furthermore, persistence rates observed in the study were lower than those observed in clinical trials, highlighting the need for an all-party (provider-patient-payer-drug manufacturer) engagement and development of programs to increase persistence rates in clinical practice, thus leading to improved clinical outcomes. In addition, the results of this study indicate that persistence to treatment with SC-TNFi may be associated with cost offsets in terms of non-biologic costs.
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Early diagnosis of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) optimises therapeutic benefit and the probability of achieving disease remission. Notwithstanding clinical acumen, early diagnosis is dependent on access to reliable serodiagnostic procedures, as well as on the discerning application and interpretation of these. ⋯ Other procedures based on measurement of elevations in the concentrations of systemic biomarkers of inflammation, most commonly acute phase reactants and cytokines/chemokines, are used as objective indices of disease activity. Following a brief overview of RA research in African populations, the current review is focused on those autoantibodies/biomarkers, specifically rheumatoid factor, anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies and C-reactive protein, which are currently recognised as being the most reliable and cost-effective with respect to disease prediction and diagnosis, as well as in monitoring activity and outcome.
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The aim of this study was to assess the relative efficacy and tolerability of duloxetine, pregabalin, and milnacipran at the recommended doses in patients with fibromyalgia. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the efficacy and safety of duloxetine 60 mg, pregabalin 300 mg, pregabalin 150 mg, milnacipran 200 mg, and milnacipran 100 mg compared to placebo in patients with fibromyalgia were included in this Bayesian network meta-analysis. Nine RCTs including 5140 patients met the inclusion criteria. ⋯ However, there was no significant difference in the efficacy and tolerability between the medications at the recommended doses. Duloxetine 60 mg, pregabalin 300 mg, milnacipran 100 mg, and milnacipran 200 mg were more efficacious than placebo. However, there was no significant difference in the efficacy and tolerability between the medications at the recommended doses.