Clinical rheumatology
-
Clinical rheumatology · Aug 2019
Comparative StudyValue of hematological indices versus VEGF as biomarkers of activity in Behçet's disease.
The aim of this study is to investigate the value of several hematological indices, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), red blood cell distribution width (RDW), and mean platelet volume (MPV), versus vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as biomarkers of activity in Behçet's disease (BD). ⋯ The NLR, PLR, and RDW are significantly higher in BD patients, suggesting their value as promising inflammatory biomarkers in BD. NLR and PLR are the most valuable predictors of vascular activity, while RDW and MPV were not valuable predictors of BD activity, rather implicated in the ongoing vascular inflammatory process in BD. The VEGF was neither a surrogate biomarker of BD activity nor reflecting the ongoing inflammatory process in BD.
-
Clinical rheumatology · Aug 2019
Systematic reviews and meta-analysis in rheumatology: a gentle introduction for clinicians.
Given the plethora of studies today on the same topic, clinicians in rheumatology as well as others increasingly rely on systematic reviews, with or without meta-analysis, to aid in their evidence-based decision-making. However, given time constraints, staying up-to-date on current methods for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as interpreting the results of these reviews for application in clinical practice can be challenging. ⋯ Included is a broad, five-question checklist to aid clinicians in rheumatology for making decisions about the utility of a systematic review. It is the hopes that this paper will aid clinicians in rheumatology as well as other consumers of systematic reviews and meta-analyses with the information necessary for judging the utility of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in their own work.