Clinical rheumatology
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Clinical rheumatology · Aug 2016
Multicenter StudyTendon involvement in patients with gout: an ultrasound study of prevalence.
The objective of the present study is to evaluate, by ultrasonography (US), the prevalence in the quadriceps, patellar, and Achilles tendon involvement of gout compared to that of patients with osteoarthritis and asymptomatic marathon runners. This is a multicenter, multinational, transverse cross-sectional, and comparative study comprising 80 patients with the diagnosis of gout according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria, compared with two control groups: 35 patients with generalized osteoarthritis according to the ACR criteria and 35 subjects who were healthy marathon runners. Demographics and clinical characteristics, such as age, gender, comorbidity, disease duration, pain at the enthesis in the knee and ankle, frequency of disease exacerbations, uric acid level more than 7.2 mg at the time of evaluation, and type of treatment, were recorded. ⋯ In patients with osteoarthritis (OA), intra-tendinous hyperechoic aggregates were observed in 20 % of quadriceps tendons and in 11 % of patellar tendons at its proximal insertion, while in the healthy marathon runner group, the Achilles tendon had this kind of lesion in 17 % of the subjects. Neither the OA nor the healthy marathon runners had intra-tendinous tophi. The sensitivity and specificity of US to detect tophi or aggregates were 69.6 and 92 %, respectively, tendon involvement at the lower limbs in gout is very frequent, particularly in the patellar tendon, and US possesses good sensitivity and specificity for detecting intra-tendinous tophi.
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Clinical rheumatology · Aug 2016
Malignancy in dermatomyositis and polymyositis: analysis of 192 patients.
This study aims to investigate the prevalence and predictive risk factors of malignancy in patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM). The medical records of 192 PM/DM patients followed up in a medical center between January 2000 and December 2013 were reviewed. Among the 192 patients, 33 patients (17.2 %) had associated cancer. ⋯ Nasopharyngeal cancer and breast cancer were the most common cancer types in DM/PM patients in our study. Cancer screening should be offered to patients with newly diagnosed DM/PM. Moreover, all patients should be evaluated for the possibility of an underlying malignancy during treatment.
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Clinical rheumatology · Aug 2016
The epidemiology of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis in northwestern Turkey.
Epidemiological data about antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is very limited. Until now, there has been no study about the epidemiology of AAV in Turkey. In this study, we evaluated the frequency of AAV in the northeastern part of Turkey. ⋯ Ten-year survival of patients with AAV was 65.3 %. The only independent poor prognostic factor in Cox's multivariate analysis was advanced age at the time of diagnosis (OR 7.5, 95 % CI 10.6-526, p = 0.043). The frequency of all AAV in northwestern Turkey was similar to that in southern Europe; however, it was lower than the frequency in Northern Europe.