Introduction The COVID‐19 pandemic led to rapid and widespread adoption of telemedicine in rheumatology care. The Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology (APLAR) working group was tasked with developing evidence‐based recommendations for rheumatology practice to guide maintenance of the highest possible standards of clinical care and to enable broad patient reach. Materials and methods A systematic review of English‐language articles related to telehealth in rheumatology was conducted on MEDLINE/PubMed, Web Of Science and Scopus. The strength of the evidence was graded using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach as well as the Oxford Levels of Evidence. The recommendations were developed using a modified Delphi technique to establish consensus. Results Three overarching principles and 13 recommendations were developed based on identified literature and consensus agreement. The overarching principles address telemedicine frameworks, decision‐making, and modality. Recommendations 1‐4 address patient suitability, triage, and when telemedicine should be offered to patients. Recommendations 5‐10 cover the procedure, including the means, data safety, fail‐safe mechanisms, and treat‐to‐target approach. Recommendations 11‐13 focus on training and education related to telerheumatology. Conclusion These recommendations provide guidance for the approach and use of telemedicine in rheumatology care to guide highest possible standards of clinical care and to enable equitable patient reach. However, since evidence in telemedicine care in rheumatology is limited and emerging, most recommendations will need further consideration when more data are available.

With the background of snowballing threat of skin wound to public health and economy, this study was undertaken utilizing xanthan gum (Xnt), citric acid (C), gelatin (Gel), glutaraldehyde (G) and HPLC-grade water to fabricate a series of composite hydrogels i.e. experimental rat skin wound model. Physicochemical characterization revealed that all the composite hydrogels contained more than 90% water. The hydrogels displayed swelling ability, biodegradability, good polymeric networks and porosity. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) studies confirmed the presence of bound water and free, intra and inter molecular bound hydrogen bonded OH and NH in the hydrogels. All the hydrogels showed significant wound healing potency in experimental deep second degree skin burns in rats compared to controls.

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The effect of exercise on beta-adrenergic receptor (beta-AR) trafficking was investigated in rat adipocytes. The binding sites of a hydrophilic ligand, [(3)H]CGP12177, increased immediately (0 h) and at 3 h after exercise (3 h) but decreased at 24 h after exercise (24 h). The data of immunoblotting revealed that the alterations in the binding sites mainly paralleled the alterations in the beta2-AR proteins in membrane fractions. The protein expressions of both G-protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)-2 and beta-arrestin-2 were reduced, with a decline in beta2-AR ubiquitination at 0 h and 3 h. The protein expressions of beta2-AR, GRK-2, beta-arrestin-2, the beta2-AR/beta-arrestin-2 complex, and beta2-AR ubiquitination returned to their respective control levels at 24 h, whereas the beta2-AR mRNA level was reduced. Administration of either lactacystin or propranolol did not alter GRK-2 and beta2-AR protein expressions after exercise. Thus, the mechanism underlying the increased density of beta2-AR up to at least 3 h may involve alterations in a multistep event involving the coordinate interaction among proteins mediating beta2-AR trafficking, in which both the receptor-agonist interactions and ubiquitin-proteasome pathway have a key role. However, the decreased protein expression of beta2-AR at 24 h might be due to some change occurring at the translational levels.

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