Aim This study was undertaken to determine the incidence and patterns of malignancies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in our cohort. Methods Between 2001 and 2013, we analyzed 1117 patients in the prospective Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) RA Registry. Patients who developed malignancies after the onset of RA were identified from this registry. Age‐ and sex‐adjusted standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated to compare observed to expected numbers of malignancies based on data from the Singapore Cancer Registry. Results Out of 19 839 person‐years of follow‐up, 132 incident malignancies were diagnosed during the observation period. There were 114 (86.4%) solid‐organ tumors and 18 (13.6%) hematological malignancies. The SIR (95% confidence interval) for all malignancies combined was 1.28 (0.88‐1.87) for males and 1.21 (1.00‐1.46) for females. Compared to the general population, we found a 4‐ to 5‐fold increase in lymphoma among our RA patients compared to the general population (SIR 5.05 [1.90‐13.46] for males and 3.75 [1.95‐7.20] for females). The SIR of lung malignancy in male RA patients is 2.36 (1.23‐4.53) and SIR of cervical malignancy in female RA patients is 3.72 (2.20‐6.23). Conclusion There is a trend toward an overall increased malignancy risk in our RA patients compared to the general population. Specifically, there is an increased risk of lymphomas in all RA patients, lung malignancy in male patients, and cervical malignancy in female patients, compared to the general population.

Background: Clinical remission is an attainable goal for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). However, data on RA remission rates from multinational studies in the Asia-Pacific region are limited. We conducted a crosssectional multicentric study to evaluate the clinical remission status and the related factors in RA patients in the Asia-Pacific region. Methods: RA patients receiving standard care were enrolled consecutively from 17 sites in 11 countries from APLAR RA SIG group. Data were collected on-site by rheumatologists with a standardized casereport form. Remission was analyzed by different definitions including disease activity score using 28 joints (DAS28) based on ESR and CRP, clinical disease activity index (CDAI), simplified disease activity index (SDAI), Boolean remission definition, and clinical deep remission (CliDR). Logistic regression was used to determine related factors of remission. Findings: A total of 2010 RA patients was included in the study, the overall remission rates were 62 • 3% (DAS28-CRP), 35 • 5% (DAS28-ESR), 30 • 8% (CDAI), 26 • 5% (SDAI), 24 • 7% (Boolean), and 17 • 1% (CliDR), respectively, and varied from countries to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs) prescription rate was low (17 • 9%). Compared to patients in non-remission, patients in remission had higher rates of b/tsDMARDs usage and lower rates of

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This paper presents innovative collaborative filtering techniques to complete missing data in repeated medical questionnaires. The proposed techniques are based on the canonical polyadic (CP) decomposition (a.k.a. PARAFAC). Besides the standard CP decomposition, also a normalized decomposition is utilized. As an illustration, systemic lupus erythematosus-specific quality-of-life questionnaire is considered. Measures such as normalized root mean square error, bias and variance are used to assess the performance of the proposed tensor-based methods in comparison with other widely used approaches, such as mean substitution, regression imputations and k-nearest neighbor estimation. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed methods provide significant improvement in comparison to popular methods. The best results are obtained for the normalized decomposition.

INTRODUCTION The antinuclear antibody (ANA) test is a screening test for systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (SARD). We hypothesised that the presence of anti-DFS70 in ANA-positive samples was associated with a false-positive ANA test and negatively associated with SARD. METHODS A retrospective analysis of patient samples received for ANA testing from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016 was performed. Patient samples underwent ANA testing via indirect immunofluorescence method and anti-DFS70 testing using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS Among a total of 645 ANA-positive samples, the majority (41.7%) were positive at a titre of 1:80. The commonest nuclear staining pattern (65.5%) was speckled. Only 9.5% of ANA-positive patients were diagnosed with SARD. Anti-DFS70 was found to be present in 10.0% of ANA-positive patients. The majority (51/59, 86.4%) of patients did not have SARD. Seven patients had positive ANA titre > 1:640, the presence of anti-double stranded DNA and/or anti-Ro60. The presence of anti-DFS70 in ANA-positive patients was not associated with the absence of SARD (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.245). CONCLUSION The presence of anti-DFS70 was associated with a false-positive ANA test in 8.6% of our patients. Anti-DFS70 was not associated with the absence of SARD.