Arthritis and rheumatism
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 1997
Elevated cytokine messenger RNA levels in the peripheral blood of patients with rheumatoid arthritis suggest different degrees of myeloid cell activation.
To determine whether monocytes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are activated to produce proinflammatory cytokines in the peripheral circulation before entering the synovium and whether the pattern of cytokines that is expressed correlates with disease activity. ⋯ Elevated levels of mRNA for selected cytokines that are predominantly produced by monocytes can be found in the PBMC of many RA patients. The data indicate that myeloid precursor cells become activated to produce cytokines before they enter the synovium, a finding which emphasizes the systemic nature of RA.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 1997
Primary juvenile fibromyalgia: psychological adjustment, family functioning, coping, and functional disability.
1) To determine the importance of psychological adjustment and family functioning in primary juvenile fibromyalgia by assessing these factors in children with fibromyalgia and in their parents, compared with children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and with pain-free control children and their parents. 2) To examine which of these factors predict functional disability. ⋯ The notion that fibromyalgia is a psychogenic condition is not supported by these results. Fibromyalgia is associated with disability of a magnitude comparable to that of other chronic pain conditions. Disability among children with fibromyalgia or JRA is a function of the children's psychological adjustment and physical state, and of the parents' physical state and method of coping with pain.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 1997
Case ReportsAn unusual case of carcinoma polyarthritis with associated vasculitis.
This report describes a patient who presented with an unusual polyarthritis syndrome. After extensive evaluation, squamous cell carcinoma of the lung was diagnosed. ⋯ Ten months later, the patient remains in clinical remission. This is the first published report of simultaneous vasculitic and polyarticular manifestations in a patient with carcinoma polyarthritis.