Our study revealed that Tp-e interval and Tp-e/QT ratio were increased in AS patients. These electrocardiographic ventricular repolarization indexes were significantly correlated with the plasma level of hsCRP.

Onychomycosis in toenails is a common fungal infection and vascular abnormalities of lower extremities have been thought as one of the predisposing conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate predisposition effect of venous insufficiency and peripheral arterial disease on toenail onychomycosis. Thirty-three patients with bilateral onychomycosis in toenails and 37 control subjects, who had healthy nails, were enrolled in the study. Veins and arteries of lower extremities were examined with Doppler ultrasound in terms of venous insufficiency or peripheral arterial disease. Patients with onychomycosis presented more frequent venous insufficiency than the control group (42.4% and 10.8%, respectively; P = 0.003). Although all patients had bilateral onychomycosis, reflux was bilateral in six out of 14 patients with onychomycosis (42.8%). No significant difference in frequency of peripheral arterial disease was found in patients, compared to healthy controls. Our study demonstrated a significant relationship between onychomycosis and venous insufficiency, but not with peripheral arterial disease. Also, we point out discordance with bilateral onychomycosis and unilateral venous insufficiency.

Level IV, retrospective case series.

This is the first study to our knowledge to show significant subclinical enthesopathy of the triceps tendon enthesis in patients with Behçet disease who had no arthritic involvement. These data suggest that the Madrid sonography enthesitis index scoring system for sonographic detection of enthesopathy should be incorporated into the clinical protocol for evaluating patients with Behçet disease in routine clinical practice.

This study showed significant enthesopathy in patients with familial Mediterranean fever. The findings support the hypothesis that familial Mediterranean fever and spondyloarthropathy may have common inflammatory mechanisms and suggest that the MASEI scoring system can be incorporated into clinical protocols for studying patients with familial Mediterranean fever in daily practice.