Monday May 21, 2012
Even though the annual incidence of systemic rheumatoid vasculitis has been decreasing since the 1990s, an analysis of 34 patients with the condition revealed that 5-year mortality following diagnosis is about 60%, according to MDConsult.com. Despite treatment advances and more aggressive treatment earlier in the course of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic rheumatoid vasculitis is still problematic if you do develop the condition. With vasculitis, blood vessels become inflamed. The affected blood vessels can be arteries that bring blood to the skin, nerves, and internal organs. Veins also can be involved in vasculitis.
Of the 34 patients, the mean age was 72 years old and the average of disease duration was 16 years before being diagnosed with systemic rheumatoid vasculitis. All patients were positive for rheumatoid factor, 13 had erosive disease, and 3 had rheumatoid nodules. All of the patients had been treated with corticosteroids, and a median of two DMARDs. Methotrexate was used in 65% of the patients. Two patients had been treated with biologic drugs. All but one patient had been treated with intravenous cyclophosphamide.
While newer treatments seem to have had an effect on incidence of systemic rheumatoid vasculitis, the treatments have not influenced clinical features of the disease or the ultimate outcome. Not all researchers attribute the decreased incidence to treatment though -- it could just be the natural evolution of rheumatoid arthritis which has made systemic rheumatoid vasculitis rare.
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Saturday May 19, 2012
We're proud to announce that SharecareNow, the healthcare industry's first and only digital platform offering real-time analytics on patient healthcare trends, conversations and influential authors, has named this website, arthritis.about.com, as one of the Top 10 Online Influencers in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
SharecareNow wrote: "Carol Eustice is About.com's Guide to Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. She is also a patient advocate and author of The Everything Health Guide to Arthritis. Carol was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 19, and in 1995 started and moderated the first weekly RA chat room/support group on America Online. She has been the original About.com Guide to Arthritis since 1997, and the About.com Guide to Osteoarthritis since 2007." It should be noted that Carol's husband, Rick, made significant contributions to the website, as well, before he passed away in 2010. Thank you SharecareNow for the recognition and congrats to the other influencers on the list! See the press release.
Friday May 18, 2012
There's more bad news for smokers, according to a report from the annual meeting of the British Society for Rheumatology. People with rheumatoid arthritis who smoke are less likely to respond to treatment with biologic drugs than people with rheumatoid arthritis who have never smoked. The numbers are quite striking. In a study of 359 patients, results revealed that after 6 months of treatment with TNF blockers, only 27% of current smokers responded to treatment compared to 90% of patients who never smoked and 63% of those who had smoked but stopped.
The response was similarly poor when response to Rituxan (rituximab) was evaluated. Only 20% of patients who were current smokers responded to rituximab, compared to 68% of those who used to smoke and 98% of those who never smoked. Change in DAS28 was used to evaluate the response or lack of response. The results offer yet another reason why rheumatoid arthritis patients should make every attempt to quit smoking.
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Monday May 14, 2012
A bacterium that is associated with cat scratch fever may play some role in human rheumatoid illnesses, including arthritis, according to researchers from North Carolina State University. The bacterium, named Bartonella, is transmitted predominantly by fleas, but also by ticks and other biting insects. Bartonella can also be transmitted to humans through bites or scratches from infected cats or dogs. The bacterium can be carried in cat's blood for months or years.
For study purposes, researchers tested the blood of 296 study participants looking for the Bartonella infection. The patients had previously been diagnosed with conditions such as arthritis, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Of the group of study participants, 62% had Bartonella antibodies (indicative of prior exposure). There was bacterial DNA found in 41% of the blood samples which allowed researchers to pinpoint the species of Bartonella. The researchers concluded that one study alone is not enough to definitively state that a subset of rheumatoid conditions is related to infection, but it does suggest a link to Bartonella in some cases and the need for further investigation.
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