1,721,057 research outputs found
The role of anti-cyclic cytrullinate antibodies testing in rheumatoid arthritis
No full textRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease, which leads to joint destruction and deformity and is often accompanied by systemic complications. It is generally considered an autoimmune disease characterized by several autoantibodies. The impressive advances made in understanding the biological mechanisms of RA have led to more focused, directed therapies that have joined, and in many cases overcome, more traditional treatments. Along the last decade, the so-called biological anti-TNF-alpha agents have been shown to reduce disease activity, to slow disease progression and to improve patients' quality of life. The clear evidence that an early therapeutic intervention improves the overall outcome of the disease supports the importance of an early diagnosis. In the last years, several studies showed that anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (anti-CCP) represent a sensitive and specific serologic marker for RA. Moreover, a large body of evidence has shown that anti-CCP may also serve as an early diagnostic and prognostic marker in RA. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding anti-CCP focusing in particular on their clinical specificity and prognostic value in RA. © 2007 Humana Press Inc
Metabolomics in rheumatic diseases: The potential of an emerging methodology for improved patient diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment efficacy
No full textMetabolomics belongs to the family of ". omics" sciences, also comprised of genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, all of which share the advantage of a non-targeted approach for identifying biomarkers and profiling the patient. This means that they do not require a preliminary knowledge of the substances to be studied. Moreover, even small quantities of biological fluids or tissues may be utilized for analysis. Metabolomic procedure has become feasible only recently with the advent and accessibility of new high-throughput technologies, including mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. The methodology generally involves three defining steps: 1) the acquisition of experimental data, 2) the multivariate statistical analysis, and 3) the projection of the acquired information (profiles) to construct the patient map. Metabolomic analysis has been applied to several disorders: as far as rheumatic diseases are concerned, a few studies have focused on rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and osteoarthritis. Both murine models and clinical data have shown the potential of this novel tool to contribute to deciding a diagnosis, discriminate between patients based on disease activity, and even predict the response to a particular treatment. The present review fully reports these findings and offers a critical view of the challenges still to be met. © 2013 Elsevier B.V
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Uveitis with retinal occlusive vasculitis and sensorineural hypoacusia as first symptoms of relapsing polychondritis
No full textWe herein describe an atypical case of relapsing polychondritis, presenting initially with isolated ocular signs characterised by uveitis and retinal occlusive vasculitis preceded by 10 years of auricular and laringothracheal chondritis. This case highlights the importance of considering connective tissue inflammatory conditions in any retinal vasculitis. A systemic enquiry is invaluable in order to avoid a delayed diagnosis and the subsequent associated complications and mortality
Clinical and Laboratory Findings in A Cohort of Italian Patients with Adult Onset Still'S Disease: The Role of IL-18 As A Disease Biomarker
No full textMetabolomics Approach in Allergic and Rheumatic Diseases
No full textMetabolomics is the analysis of the concentration profiles of low molecular weight compounds present in biological fluids. Metabolites are nonpeptide molecules representing the end products of cellular activity. Therefore, changes in metabolite concentrations reveal the range of biochemical effects induced by a disease or its therapeutic intervention. Metabolomics has recently become feasible with the accessibility of new technologies, including mass spectrometry and high-resolution proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and has already been applied to several disorders. Indeed, it has the advantage of being a nontargeted approach for identifying potential biomarkers, which means that it does not require a preliminary knowledge of the substances to be studied. In this review, we summarize the main studies in which metabolomic approach was used in some allergic (asthma, atopic dermatitis) and rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus) to explore the feasibility of this technique as a novel diagnostic tool in these complex disorders
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