Rheumatology international
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Review Case Reports
Low-dose rituximab therapy in steroid-refractory thrombocytopenia due to systemic lupus erythematosus.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease, characterized by multi-organ symptomatology. 16% of the patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenia have SLE and are associated with high mortality. Intravenous methylprednisolone or high-dose steroids are the first-line treatments in those patients who experienced life-threatening bleeding or have a severely low platelet count, whereas a second line includes splenectomy, as well as other immunosuppressive agents as monotherapy or combined therapy, including azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, and mycophenolate mofetil. However, response rates of these therapies vary considerably. ⋯ Those patients who required concomitant use of AZA were patients who had positive antiphospholipid serology. The use of low-dose RTX for the management of severe thrombocytopenia refractory to GC in patients with SLE has a good response. It could be a safe, economical, and effective therapy.
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Review Case Reports
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a patient with ankylosing spondylitis treated with secukinumab: a case-based review.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coranovirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become an important health-care issue worldwide. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has also raised concerns among patients with inflammatory rheumatic conditions and their treating physicians. There are emerging data regarding the potential risks of SARS-CoV-2 for this particular patient group. ⋯ Interleukin-17 has been related to the hyperinflammatory state in COVID-19 and IL-17 inhibitors were presented as promising targets for the prevention of aberrant inflammation and acute respiratory distress in COVID-19. However, this hypothesis still remains to be proved. Further studies are warranted in order to test the benefits and risks of IL-inhibitors in SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals.
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The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is likely to pose new challenges to the rheumatology community in the near and distant future. Some of the challenges, like the severity of COVID-19 among patients on immunosuppressive agents, are predictable and are being evaluated with great care and effort across the globe. A few others, such as atypical manifestations of COVID-19 mimicking rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) are being reported. Like in many other viral infections, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can potentially lead to an array of rheumatological and autoimmune manifestations by molecular mimicry (cross-reacting epitope between the virus and the host), bystander killing (virus-specific CD8 + T cells migrating to the target tissues and exerting cytotoxicity), epitope spreading, viral persistence (polyclonal activation due to the constant presence of viral antigens driving immune-mediated injury) and formation of neutrophil extracellular traps. In addition, the myriad of antiviral drugs presently being tried in the treatment of COVID-19 can result in several rheumatic musculoskeletal adverse effects. In this review, we have addressed the possible spectrum and mechanisms of various autoimmune and rheumatic musculoskeletal manifestations that can be precipitated by COVID-19 infection, its therapy, and the preventive strategies to contain the infection.
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As of June 10th 2020 about 7.2 million individuals have tested positive for, and more than 410,000 have died due to COVID-19. In this review we outline the pathophysiology that underpins the potential use of anti-rheumatic therapies for severe COVID-19 infection and summarize the current evidence regarding the risk and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases. Thus far there is no convincing evidence that any disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (conventional synthetic, biologic or targeted synthetic) including hydroxychloroquine, may protect against severe COVID-19 infection; answers about their possible usefulness in the management of the cytokine storm associated with severe COVID-9 infection will only arise from ongoing randomized controlled trials. ⋯ At present, the risk and severity (hospitalization, intensive care unit admission and death) of COVID-19 infection in people with autoimmune diseases do not appear particularly dissimilar to the general population, with the possible exception of hospitalization in patients exposed to high glucocorticoid doses. At this stage it is impossible to draw any conclusions for differences in COVID-19 risk and outcome between different autoimmune diseases and between the various immunomodulatory therapies used for them. More research in the field is obviously required, including as a minimum careful and systematic epidemiology and appropriately controlled clinical trials.
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To examine the reported clinical and cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions following total hip replacement (THR). A systematic review was completed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). MEDLINE, CINAHL, AMED, Scopus, DARE, HTA, and NHS EED databases were searched for studies on clinical and cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy in adults with THR published up to March 2020. ⋯ However, questions remain on the pooled cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions, and further research is required to examine this in patients with THR. Future studies are required to examine the cost-effectiveness of these interventions from patients, caregivers, and societal perspectives. Registration Prospero (ID: CRD42018096524).