Arthritis and rheumatism
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Dec 2013
Randomized Controlled Trial Observational StudyChronic kidney disease and the risk of incident gout among middle-aged men: a seven-year prospective observational study.
The kidney is the major organ that facilitates excretion of urate in humans. Surprisingly, few studies have assessed whether a reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and/or kidney damage is associated with a higher incidence of gout, and this study was undertaken to address this question. ⋯ Chronic kidney disease manifesting as reduced glomerular function or as presence of blood or protein in the urine increases the risk of incident gout.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Dec 2013
Overlapping structural and functional brain changes in patients with long-term exposure to fibromyalgia pain.
There is vast evidence to support the presence of brain aberrations in patients with fibromyalgia (FM), and it is possible that central plasticity is critical for the transition from acute to chronic pain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between brain structure and function in patients with FM. ⋯ The combined integration of structural and functional measures allowed for a unique characterization of the impact of FM pain on the brain. These data may lead to the identification of early structural and functional brain alterations in response to pain, which could be used to develop markers for predicting the development of FM and other pain disorders.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Dec 2013
Prevalence of the fibromyalgia phenotype in patients with spine pain presenting to a tertiary care pain clinic and the potential treatment implications.
Injections for spinal pain have high failure rates, emphasizing the importance of patient selection. It is possible that detecting the presence of a fibromyalgia (FM)-like phenotype could aid in prediction, because in these individuals a peripheral injection would not address pain due to alterations in central neurotransmission. We undertook this study to test the hypothesis that patients who have spine pain meeting survey criteria for FM would be phenotypically distinct from those who do not. ⋯ Using the FM criteria and severity scales, we demonstrated profound phenotypic differences in a population of patients with spine pain. Although centralized pain cannot be confirmed with a self-report instrument alone, the pathophysiology of FM may help explain a portion of the variability of responses to spine interventions.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Nov 2013
Endothelial injury in a transforming growth factor β-dependent mouse model of scleroderma induces pulmonary arterial hypertension.
To delineate the constitutive pulmonary vascular phenotype of the TβRIIΔk-fib mouse model of scleroderma, and to selectively induce pulmonary endothelial cell injury using vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibition to develop a model with features characteristic of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). ⋯ In this study, we replicated key features of systemic sclerosis-related PAH in a mouse model. Our results suggest that pulmonary endothelial cell injury in a genetically susceptible mouse strain triggers this complication and support the underlying role of functional interplay between TGFβ and VEGF, which provides insight into the pathogenesis of this disease.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Oct 2013
Sputum autoantibodies in patients with established rheumatoid arthritis and subjects at risk of future clinically apparent disease.
To evaluate the generation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-related autoantibodies in the lung. ⋯ RA-related autoantibodies are detectable in sputum in subjects at risk of RA and in subjects with early RA. In a subset of at-risk subjects, the presence of sputum autoantibodies in the absence of seropositivity, and the increased autoantibody-to-total Ig ratios in sputum, suggest that the lung may be a site of autoantibody generation in the early development of RA. These findings suggest an important role of the lung in the pathogenesis of RA.