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ID PMID Title PublicationDate abstract
3539432 Cellular immunity in patients with systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1987 Jan We studied the cellular immune responses in 10 patients with systemic form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. The numbers of peripheral T lymphocytes and their helper/inducer and cytotoxic/suppressor subpopulation were within normal levels. Activated T lymphocytes (DR+) were slightly increased but not at statistically significant levels. In contrast to the T cells, B lymphocytes were increased; both the percentage of B cells (B1+) and the number of cells spontaneously secreting IgG, IgA, and IgM were increased. Stimulation of peripheral mononuclear cells in vitro with pokeweed mitogen induced poor plaque-forming cell responses, which were partially improved upon removal of monocytes. The presence of concanavalin A in the cultures led to complete suppression. We conclude that patients with systemic JRA are characterized primarily by B-cell rather than T-cell abnormalities.
2204140 [The evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of auranofin in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis 1990 The authors describe the results of prospective multicenter Soviet-American placebo-controlled 6-month investigations concerned with assessment of the therapeutic efficacy of auranofin in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). 231 patients with JRA were placed under observation. Auranofin was found to be slightly superior to placebo. The drug was tolerated well. It is noted that in the treatment of JRA, of importance are long (6-month) courses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
1930333 Correlation of serum interleukin-6 levels with joint involvement and thrombocytosis in sys 1991 Sep We measured interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in 70 serum samples obtained from 25 patients with systemic-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), using the hybridoma cell line B9. Patients with systemic-onset JRA had significantly elevated serum IL-6 levels during active disease (mean +/- SD 92.1 +/- 75.1 hybridoma growth factor units/ml; P less than 0.00001 versus healthy age-matched controls), but not during remission. Serum IL-6 levels correlated with the extent and severity of joint involvement (P less than 0.001) and with platelet counts (P less than 0.05). Our data suggest that IL-6 plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of systemic-onset JRA.
2347139 Predicting outcome at the knee in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1990 Jan This study was undertaken to correlate long-term severe radiographic changes with clinical profiles in an attempt to identify a group of patients at risk. Knee radiographs of 100 juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) patients with 1-20 years of follow-up studies were reviewed for changes leading to severe disability. Eighteen children had evidence of destructive changes an average of 4.3 years after onset of JRA. 23 patients had reactive changes superimposed on destructive changes seen 9.7 years after onset of disease. 92% of the children with reactive and destructive knee changes had radiographic evidence of significant JRA at another joint. Polyarticular disease with significant JRA involvement of another joint seems to indicate a group of children at higher risk for destructive and reactive changes at the knee.
3133483 Serum IgG subclass levels in paediatric clinic patients with variable degrees of IgA defic 1988 Jan We measured IgG subclass levels by radial immunodiffusion with polyclonal antisera in 60 patients with IgA deficiency. The low IgA levels were measured by a sensitive and specific enzymoimmunometric method. None of the patients had complete deficiency of IgG2, but 4 patients had serum levels of IgG2 and 4 of IgG3 below the range for controls. Elevated levels of IgG1 were found in patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and coeliac disease. None of the patients with coeliac disease or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis had low IgG2 or IgG3 levels. The levels of IgG4 were highly variable but patients with coeliac disease had particularly high values. The severity of IgA deficiency did not correlate with the level of serum IgG2.
2213781 Growth and differentiation of B lymphocytes of patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis 1990 Aug We studied growth and differentiation of B lymphocytes of patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) using B cell enriched populations. Mitogen stimulation led to similar proportionate increases in proliferation and immunoglobulin (Ig) secretion in cultures of patient and control lymphocytes. While there was no increase in proliferation, IgG secretion was increased in the absence of mitogen. Nonmitogen activated Ig synthesis could be reduced by replacing culture medium with fresh medium after 16-20 h in culture. It was partly reconstituted by addition of recombinant cytokines, interleukin (IL), IL-2, IL-4, or IL-6. Our results suggest there may be a population of B circulating B cells in patients with JRA and other rheumatic diseases which is sufficiently mature to differentiate and secrete Ig in response to cytokines alone.
2274004 [Changes in the production of IgM in response to pokeweed mitogen in juvenile rheumatoid a 1990 Jul Unstimulated and pokeweed mitogen (PWM)-stimulated "in vitro" IgM synthesis by peripheral blood lymphocytes has been evaluated by an ELISA method in 33 patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Lymphocyte PWM responses were significantly reduced in patients with JRA compared with healthy controls. When patients were divided according to disease activity, a significant increase of stimulation index (ratio of IgM synthesis with over that without PWM) has been observed in patients with disease remission compared with those with active disease. These findings confirm the defect in PWM-induced IgM synthesis by peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with JRA and suggest that these abnormalities may be related to disease activity.
2603038 [Antibodies to type I and II collagen in rheumatoid arthritis and chronic cicatricial sten 1989 Enzyme immunoassay with highly purified human collagen preparations and low (1:10) dilutions of sera detected an increased specific immune reaction mostly on collagen denaturated forms in 50% of 49 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. No correlation was detected between the level of humoral immune response and the major clinical parameters except those reflecting the disease progress. Similar investigation of sera from children with chronic cicatricial stenoses has revealed a group of patients with significantly elevated level of anticollagen humoral immune response, though in these patients this response is probably not specifically associated with collagen.
2023183 The L1 protein as a new indicator of inflammatory activity in patients with juvenile rheum 1991 Jan L1 is a major granulocyte and monocyte protein with Mr 36.5 kDa. It is released during leukocyte activation and detected in plasma by use of an enzyme immunoassay. In our study, L1, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), orosomucoid and haptoglobin were analyzed in 127 patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (79 pauci, 33 poly and 15 systemic). L1, ESR and the acute phase proteins were all found to have positive correlations with the clinical joint assessments, with L1 having the strongest correlations. High correlation coefficients were found between L1 and orosomucoid (r = 0.83), ESR (r = 0.72), haptoglobin (r = 0.71) and CRP (r = 0.65), with p less than 0.001 for all the correlations.
3437422 The prevalence of coagulation abnormalities in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1987 Dec To determine the prevalence of coagulopathy in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, results of repeated coagulation studies obtained on 73 patients over one year were correlated with disease activity, liver function abnormalities and drug therapy. In spite of active and severe disease in the majority of these children, coagulation abnormalities developed in only 2 cases and there was no instance of clinically apparent bleeding. Although these results suggest that the development of coagulopathy is uncommon, the physician must continue to exercise vigilance for this potentially life threatening complication, especially when caring for the child with systemic disease receiving combinations of drug therapy.
1865420 Chronic myeloid leukemia in a woman with Still's disease treated with 198Au synoviorthesis 1991 May A 32-year-old woman presented with chronic myeloid leukemia 20 years after 2 198Au synoviortheses to her knees for severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She progressed to blast phase of her disease and died from complications of therapy. The literature on rheumatoid arthritis, its therapy, radioisotopes and leukemia is reviewed.
1925258 [Functional state of the endocrine glands and the immune system in patients with juvenile 1991 Apr A total of 35 patients aged from 5 to 12 years old suffering from the articular, visceral or polyarticular form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) were examined. The functional state of the endocrine glands were determined by means of appliances intended for radioimmunological study. To characterize the immune status of patients the conventional methods of investigation were used. The analysis of the material showed that all the patients with JRA had disorders in the system: hypophysis--adrenal cortex, the system: hypophysis-thyroid gland and pancreas suffer to the least degree. Disorders were mostly marked in patients with the articular- visceral form of JRA and those with a protracted course of the disease (two or more years). Relationship between hormonal and immune parameters was revealed.
3182363 The timing of menarche in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1988 Nov A study of the age of menarche in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) patients was undertaken to determine what factors affect the timing of menarche. There was a significant difference between the mean age of menarche for the 68 JRA patients and 46 controls (p = 0.015). No clear etiology for this difference was elucidated. Polyarticular-onset JRA patients had the oldest age of menarche, but this finding was of marginal statistical significance (p less than 0.05,pcorr less than 0.25). The multivariate model that included onset type, steroid use, and duration of disease weakly predicted age of menarche in the JRA group. This model suggests that, exclusive of height and weight parameters, duration of disease was the most important predictor of menarche in JRA.
3170286 HLA and altered sex ratios in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis sibships. 1988 Aug Analysis of sex ratio in 301 siblings of 150 patients with early-onset pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis revealed a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.00 in sibships with an HLA-B44+ proband, compared with a ratio of 1:1.05 in other sibships (G2 = 6.07, df = 1, p = 0.014). The siblings had a sex ratio of 1:0.8, when the HLA-B44 antigen was present in either parent but not transmitted to the proband. The capacity to distort the sex ratio was limited therefore to disease-associated HLA-B44 haplotypes.
3070723 Development of rheumatoid factor research through 50 years. 1988 The discovery of Waaler in 1937 initiated fruitful research on RFs. It was not until the early 1960s that investigators in the field agreed that RFs are antibodies to Fc fragment of IgG. Separate factors combining with human and rabbit IgG and a factor combining with both these IgGs were at first demonstrated by mixed agglutination and then by separation through IgG-conjugated columns. Only RF combining with native autologous IgG should be considered an autoantibody. Other RFs are allo- or heteroantibodies. Cross-reacting RFs that combine with IgG of various species or with IgG and antigens of cell nuclei are of considerable interest. This cross-reactivity may be due to a combining site interacting with shared epitopes or otherwise to multispecificity of the RF molecule in that it has separate or partially overlapping combining sites acting on different epitopes. Experimental studies conducted since the mid-1950s showed that formation of RFs may be elicited by altered autologous IgG. Under natural conditions such alteration was shown to result from interaction of IgG antibody with its corresponding antigen and RF in many infectious diseases and possibly also in rheumatoid arthritis appeared to result from stimulation by immune complexes. More recently alterations of IgG by its reaction with microbial Fc receptors as well as non-specific polyclonal stimulation of B cells were shown to play a role in RF formation. RFs have been implemented in the pathogenicity of rheumatoid arthritis. Recent studies on dispersion of immune complexes in tissue sections by aggregated IgG showed that self-polymerization of IgG RFs results in formation of glomerular deposits in various nephropathies.
3384451 Heterogeneity in rheumatoid factor isotypes and specificities in MRL mice. 1988 May MRL/lpr mice spontaneously develop an arthritis which, in several respects, is similar to human rheumatoid arthritis, including joint inflammation and circulating rheumatoid factors. In human disease, circulating IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) predominates but, surprisingly, in these mice we have detected much more IgA rheumatoid factor. This IgA rheumatoid factor has a major specificity for IgG2a, but heterogeneity in binding specificity was seen between different mice. IgG rheumatoid factors were determined in a heterologous mouse IgG assay, in which each subclass of rheumatoid factor was tested for its ability to bind to the remaining IgG subclasses. Rheumatoid factor activity was detected in all the IgG subclasses, but particularly elevated levels were seen in IgG3 and IgG1. Both the levels and specificities of IgG rheumatoid factors were markedly different between each mouse.
3560095 Flurbiprofen in the treatment of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1986 Dec Thirty-four patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, who were treated with flurbiprofen at a maximum dose of 4 mg/kg/day, had statistically significant decreases from baseline in 6 arthritis indices after 12 weeks of treatment. Improvements were seen in the number of tender joints, the severity of swelling and tenderness, the time of walk 50 feet, the duration of morning stiffness and the circumference of the left knee. The most frequently observed side effect was fecal occult blood (25% of patients); however, there was no other evidence of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in these patients. One patient was prematurely discontinued from the study for severe headache and abdominal pain. Most side effects were mild and related to the GI tract.
3358807 Spinal cord compression by epidural lipomatosis in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1988 Mar Two cases of spinal cord compression secondary to steroid-induced epidural lipomatosis in systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) patients are reported. This complication of prolonged corticosteroid therapy has not been described previously in children with JRA. Epidural lipomatosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of JRA patients receiving high-dose and/or prolonged corticosteroid therapy who present with neurologic signs and symptoms referable to the spinal cord.
3489465 HLA-DP antigens in patients with pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1986 Sep The distribution of the recently described HLA-DP antigens was examined in a population of patients with pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and iridocyclitis, in an attempt to further characterize the immunogenetically determined susceptibility to this disease. There was a significantly increased frequency of the HLA-DPw2 antigen in the patients compared with the controls (67% versus 34%; odds ratio 3.9, P = 0.003 by Fisher's exact test). Population studies and family studies showed that this association with HLA-DPw2 was not secondary to linkage disequilibrium with the previously defined HLA-D region markers of disease (HLA-DR5 and HLA-DRw8) in these patients. These data raise the possibility that susceptibility to this form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis may be regulated by more than one HLA-linked gene.
3684202 Prognostic factors in the uveitis of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 1987 Oct Risk factors for significant visual loss were investigated in 51 patients with iridocyclitis associated with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Average follow-up was 12.7 years. Of 89 eyes with uveitis, 22% had visual loss to 20/200 or worse, 46% had cataracts, 30% had band keratopathy, and 27% had glaucoma. Severity of visual loss and complications correlated with the degree of inflammation found on initial ocular examination. Of 58 eyes that were initially normal or had signs of mild inflammation (cells, flare, keratitic precipitates), 3% had final vision of 20/200 or worse, 28% had cataracts, 5% had band keratopathy, and 17% had glaucoma. Of 31 eyes with posterior synechiae on initial examination, 58% had final vision of 20/200 or worse, 81% had cataracts, 77% had band keratopathy, and 45% had glaucoma. When arthritis clearly preceded uveitis, 6% of patients had a poor visual outcome compared to 67% of patients whose initial manifestation of JRA was uveitis. Systemic corticosteroid administration used primarily for arthritis correlated with cataract formation.