Lupus
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Objective Adherence to medication has a major impact on treatment control and success especially in chronic diseases but often remains unrecognized. Besides clinical, socioeconomic, disease-related and treatment-related parameters, general and personal health beliefs, as well as perception of health, can affect adherence. Our aim was to investigate the adherence to lupus-specific medications in German lupus patients and to assess influencing factors including detrimental or beneficial effects of health perceptions and beliefs. ⋯ Conclusion A low belief that one's own health is determined by healthcare providers (external HLC) and the belief of the harmfulness of medication were independent predictors of low adherence besides age and the choice of the medical agent. The recognition of these potential obstacles in physician-patient relationships is essential to ameliorate adherence. Provision of sufficient information and education might help to reach the best possible outcome.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Distinct regional brain atrophy pattern in multiple sclerosis and neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus patients.
Differentiation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from multiple sclerosis (MS) can be challenging, especially when neuropsychiatric (NP) symptoms are accompanied by white matter lesions in the brain. Given the lack of discriminative power of currently applied tools for their differentiation, there is an unmet need for other measures that can aid in distinguishing between the two autoimmune disorders. In this study we aimed at exploring whether brain atrophy measures could serve as markers differentiating MS and SLE. ⋯ We show there is a different pattern of atrophy in MS and SLE, and the key structural volumes that are differentially affected include fourth ventricle and posterior section of corpus callosum, followed by third ventricle to thalamus ratio. Different correlation patterns between volumetric and clinical data may suggest that while in MS atrophy is driven mainly by disease activity, in SLE it is mostly associated with age. However, these results need further replication in a larger cohort.