RMD Open

Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity improves cardiovascular risk prediction beyond SCORE2 in autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a 7-year follow-up study

Objectives To evaluate the prognostic value of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), a marker of aortic stiffness, for ...
RMD Open

Elevated plasma monounsaturated fatty acids and their associations with disease activity, adiposity and sex in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a cross-sectional study

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease associated with systemic inflammation and metabolic ...
RMD Open

Spatial gene expression of salivary glands in Sjögren’s disease highlights T follicular helper cell signalling as an indicator of disease pathogenesis

Introduction Sjögren’s disease (SjD) is a systemic, rheumatic autoimmune disorder evidenced by broad organ-specific ...
RMD Open

Aortitis accelerates the growth rate of thoracic aortic aneurysms

Background Thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA) are predominantly degenerative. Non-infectious inflammatory aortitis, including ...
rmdopen.bmj

Unveiling the clinical and genetic impact of neuropsychiatric involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives Despite the clinical significance of neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE), which is a severe complication of SLE, clinical and genetic studies on NPSLE remain limited. This ...
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Patients with psoriatic arthritis and comorbid metabolic syndrome show a difficult-to-treat phenotype: another mosaic tile in the definition of a still undefined subset of patients

Objective Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory condition associated with psoriasis and characterised by heterogeneous clinical manifestations, including peripheral and axial arthritis, ...
rmdopen.bmj

Association between disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and risk of incident dementia: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Background Dysregulation of several inflammatory cytokines including tumour necrosis factor (TNF) in dementia patients has also been identified as a key factor in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid ...
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DEUS Enthesitis Index (DEI): a new tool integrating ultrasound and clinical examination for enthesitis assessment in spondyloarthritis

Objectives (1) To develop a composite score, the DEUS (Defining Enthesitis on Ultrasound in Spondyloarthritis) Enthesitis Index (DEI), which integrates ultrasound and clinical examination findings for ...
rmdopen.bmj

Windows for intervention in the prearthritis phase of rheumatoid arthritis? A narrative review of key triggering events and potential preventive strategies

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that often evolves over several years, which in the presence of risk factors, is termed the at-risk phase. Several of the currently approved ...
rmdopen.bmj

Tapering glucocorticoids and risk of flare in rheumatoid arthritis on biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs)

Introduction Glucocorticoids are still a mainstream of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. Reducing glucocorticoids should be attempted in all patients. However, choosing the right tapering strategy ...
rmdopen.bmj

Does tocilizumab eliminate inflammation in GCA? A cohort study on repeated temporal artery biopsies

Background Vascular inflammation persists in temporal artery biopsy (TAB) of giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients even after prolonged glucocorticoid (GC) therapy. We aimed to evaluate the histological ...
rmdopen.bmj

Serious infection risk in rheumatoid arthritis compared with non-inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases: a US national cohort study

Objectives To identify serious infection (SI) risk by aetiology and site in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared with those with non-inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases ...