European journal of internal medicine
-
Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Nov 2023
ReviewAxial Spondyloarthritis: Evolving concepts regarding the disease's diagnosis and treatment.
Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the axial skeleton (axSpA) and/or the peripheral joints (p-SpA) and entheses. The natural history of SpA in the decades of the 80 and 90 s involved a progressive disease with pain, spinal stiffness, ankylosis of the axial skeleton, structural damage of peripheral joints, and a poor prognosis. In the last 20 years, enormous advances in understanding and managing SpA have occurred. ⋯ Sustained clinical disease remission, low disease activity, improvement of patient's quality of life, and prevention of progression of structural damage, are the results of the above interventions. The concept of SpA has changed in the last 20 years. The disease burden can be ameliorated by early and accurate diagnosis and targeting therapies.
-
Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Nov 2023
Observational StudyIntravenous immunoglobulin therapy in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis.
Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) includes three heterogeneous and difficult to treat clinical entities. Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) may constitute a good therapeutic option, although data hitherto are scarce. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and safety of IVIG in AAV in a real-world setting. ⋯ IVIG represents an effective and relative safe therapeutic alternative in relapsing/refractory AAV or in presence of a concomitant active infection.