ObjectivesRenal flares are common in lupus nephritis (LN), and class switch is thought to be characteristic. There is no agreement on indications for performing a repeat renal biopsy. Our objective was to retrospectively review patients who had more than one renal biopsy performed on clinical indications, and analyse clinical, pathological and treatment changes after successive biopsies.MethodsForty-five patients with LN and one or more repeat renal biopsies were included, with a total of 116 biopsies.ResultsOf the 71 repeat biopsies, pathological transition occurred in 39 (54.9%). When having a previous biopsy with a proliferative lesion, class switch occurred in 55.6%, with 24.4% evolving into non-proliferative classes. When previous biopsy was class V, transition to other classes occurred in 58.3% and changes were all into proliferative classes. Conversion from one pure proliferative form to another (class III to class IV or vice versa) happened in 11.3% of the rebiopsies, with 62 rebiopsies (87.3%) leading to a change in the treatment regimen.ConclusionsHistological transformations were common, and they occurred when the previous biopsy had non-proliferative lesions as well as when lesions were proliferative. Treatments were modified after repeat renal biopsy in the majority of patients. In this experience, kidney repeat biopsies were useful in guiding treatment of LN flares.
Our objective was to analyze the effects of cigarette smoking on disease activity, functional capacity, radiographic damage, serology and presence of extraarticular manifestations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and undifferentiated arthritis. This is a cross-sectional study of 1,305 patients (729 with rheumatoid arthritis and 576 with undifferentiated arthritis) from CONAART, the Argentine Consortium for Early Arthritis that includes patients older than 16 years with <2 years of disease. Sociodemographic data, clinical characteristics of the disease and smoking history were collected. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis the disease activity score of 28 joints was 5.4 ± 1.3 in current smokers, 5.2 ± 1.4 in former smokers and 5.1 ± 1.4 in never smokers (p = 0.011). The simple erosion narrowing score was higher in current smokers and former smokers than in never smokers (M 14.0, R Q 6.0-21.0; M 15.0, R Q 7.0-24.0; M 10.0, R Q 5.0-17.0; p = 0.006). Current smokers had higher rheumatoid factor titer (M 160.0, R Q 80.0-341.0) than former smokers (M 146.8, R Q 6.03-255.5) and never smokers (M 15.0, R Q 9.0-80.0) (p = 0.004). The variable independently associated with tobacco exposure was simple erosion narrowing score (OR = 1.03, 95 % CI 1.00-1.05; p = 0.012). In patients with undifferentiated arthritis, an association between smoking status and parameters of activity or radiographic damage was not observed. Neither was tobacco exposure related to the presence of extraarticular manifestations or to the degree of disability in any of the two groups of patients. No relation was found between disease activity and severity, and number of packs smoked per year. Tobacco.
Objectives. To validate van der Helm-van Mil score (vHvM) and new ACR/EULAR criteria for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with undifferentiated arthritis (UA). Patients and Methods. Adult patients with UA (swelling ≥2 joints of less than 6 months duration, without diagnosis, and never treated with disease modifying drugs). Results. Ninety-one patients were included. Mean age: 55.6 years (SD: 17.4), 74% females. Median symptoms duration was 2 months (IR: 1–4 months). Mean van der Helm-van Mil score was 6.9 (SD: 2). After a mean followup of 6.2 months (SD: 6), 40.7% patients fulfilled ACR 1987 RA classification criteria, 28.6% fulfilled other diagnostic criteria, and 31% remained as UA. Receiver operator characteristic curve's (ROC's) area under the curve (AUC) for the vHvM score for diagnosis of RA was 0.83. A cutoff value of 6.94 showed sensitivity of 81% and 79.7% specificity. For the new ACR/EULAR criteria, the ROC AUC was 0.93, and a value equal to or greater than 6 showed 86.5% sensitivity and 87% specificity. Conclusion. van der Helm-van Mil prediction score and the new ACR/EULAR criteria proved to be valuable for the diagnosis of RA in patients with early UA.
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