Rheumatology
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Comparative Study
Functional status in severe juvenile idiopathic arthritis in the biologic treatment era: an assessment in a French paediatric rheumatology referral centre.
To investigate the functional status of difficult-to-treat JIA patients, including patients receiving biotherapies, and to correlate functional status to disease activity. ⋯ Despite the high proportion of severe JIA patients in this cohort, CHAQ values are within the lower range of recent reports, probably related to new therapeutic approaches. Impaired function and well-being remain a challenge for at least 10% of the patients. Impaired well-being and pain in ERA patients require further study. The strong correlation between functional status and well-being underlines the importance of improving function to optimize quality of life.
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Comparative Study
The diagnostic utility of anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 antibody testing for predicting the prognosis of Japanese patients with DM.
Interstitial lung disease (ILD), especially rapidly progressive ILD (RPILD), is a major poor prognostic factor in patients with DM. We investigated the association of anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) antibody (Ab) with clinical characteristics and mortality in Japanese patients with DM. ⋯ The presence of anti-MDA5 Ab identifies the characteristic skin, musculoskeletal, pulmonary and prognostic features in patients with DM. In addition, anti-MDA5 Ab seems to predict a group of patients with CADM-complicated fatal RPILD.