Journal of internal medicine
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Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease affecting people older than 50 years and is 2-3 times more common in women. The most common symptoms are pain and morning stiffness in the shoulder and pelvic girdle and the onset may be acute or develop over a few days to weeks. General symptoms such as fatigue, fever and weight loss may occur, likely driven by systemic IL-6 signalling. ⋯ There are challenges in the management of patients with PMR as relapses do occur and patients with PMR may need to stay on GC for extended periods. This is associated with high rates of GC-related comorbidities, such as diabetes and osteoporosis, and there are limited data on the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and biologics as GC sparing agents. Finally, PMR is associated with giant cell arteritis that may complicate the disease course and require more intense and prolonged treatment.
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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative illness with both motor and nonmotor symptoms. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established safe neurosurgical symptomatic therapy for eligible patients with advanced disease in whom medical treatment fails to provide adequate symptom control and good quality of life, or in whom dopaminergic medications induce severe side effects such as dyskinesias. DBS can be tailored to the patient's symptoms and targeted to various nodes along the basal ganglia-thalamus circuitry, which mediates the various symptoms of the illness; DBS in the thalamus is most efficient for tremors, and DBS in the pallidum most efficient for rigidity and dyskinesias, whereas DBS in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) can treat both tremors, akinesia, rigidity and dyskinesias, and allows for decrease in doses of medications even in patients with advanced stages of the disease, which makes it the preferred target for DBS. ⋯ Dysarthria is the most common side effect of DBS, regardless of the brain target. DBS has a long-lasting effect on appendicular symptoms, but with progression of disease, nondopaminergic axial features become less responsive to DBS. DBS for PD is highly specialised; to enable adequate selection and follow-up of patients, DBS requires dedicated multidisciplinary teams of movement disorder neurologists, functional neurosurgeons, specialised DBS nurses and neuropsychologists.
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Little is known about vulnerability to severe COVID-19 illness after vaccination completion with three doses of vaccine against COVID-19. ⋯ This study provides useful insights for establishing priority in fourth-dose vaccination programs.
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Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) inhibit the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX), which forms prostaglandins involved in pain and inflammation. COX inhibitors have analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, but also increase risks for gastrointestinal ulcers, bleeding, and renal and cardiovascular adverse events. Identification of two isoforms of COX, COX-1 and COX-2, led to the development of selective COX-2 inhibitors, which were launched as having fewer gastrointestinal side effects since gastroprotective prostaglandins produced via COX-1 are spared. ⋯ Randomized trials comparing COX-2 inhibitors with NSAIDs have exaggerated their gastrointestinal benefits by using maximal NSAID doses regardless of indication, and/or hidden the cardiovascular risk by comparing with COX-2 selective diclofenac instead of low-dose ibuprofen or naproxen. Observational studies show increased cardiovascular risks within weeks of treatment with COX-2 inhibitors and high doses of NSAIDs other than naproxen, which is the safest alternative. COX inhibitors are symptomatic drugs that should be used intermittently at the lowest effective dosage, especially among individuals with an increased cardiovascular risk.