Rheumatoid arthritis patients are at higher risk of developing comorbidities. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of major comorbidities in Chinese rheumatoid arthritis patients. We also aimed to identify factors associated with these comorbidities. Baseline demographic, clinical characteristics and comorbidity data from RA patients enrolled in the Chinese Registry of rhEumatoiD arthrITis (CREDIT) from Nov 2016 to August 2017 were presented and compared with those from five other registries across the world. Possible factors related to three major comorbidities (cardiovascular disease, fragility fracture and malignancy) were identified using multivariate logistic regression analyses. A total of 13,210 RA patients were included (80.6% female, mean age 52.9 years and median RA duration 4.0 years). Baseline prevalence rates of major comorbidities were calculated: CVD, 2.2% (95% CI 2.0–2.5%); fragility fracture, 1.7% (95% CI 1.5–1.9%); malignancy, 0.6% (95% CI 0.5–0.7%); overall major comorbidities, 4.2% (95% CI 3.9–4.6%). Advanced age was associated with all comorbidities. Male gender and disease duration were positively related to CVD. Female sex and longer disease duration were potential risk factors for fragility fractures. Ever use of methotrexate (MTX) was negatively related to baseline comorbidities. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis in China have similar prevalence of comorbidities with other Asian countries. Advanced age and long disease duration are possible risk factors for comorbidities. On the contrary, MTX may protect RA patients from several major comorbidities, supporting its central role in the management of rheumatoid arthritis.

We aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of 411 Chinese Takayasu’s arteritis (TAK) patients using a retrospective analysis. We retrospectively reviewed 810 medical charts of patients with a diagnosis of TAK who were admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital from 1990 to 2014. 411 patients with a complete dataset were finally included in the analysis. The demographic data, clinical features, angiographic patterns, and TAK-related surgical procedures were collected and analyzed. The median age at disease onset was 23 (18, 30) years old, with a median disease duration of 21 (6, 60) months; 325 (79.1%) were female. The angiographic involvement pattern was type I in 91 (22.1%) patients, type IIa in 16 (3.9%) patients, type IIb in 16 (3.9%) patients, type III in 12 (2.9%) patients, type IV in 26 (6.3%) patients, and type V in 250 (60.8%) patients. Subclavian arteries (79.8%) were the most commonly involved, followed by carotid arteries (79.1%). The occurrence rate (4.1%) of aortic aneurysm in this study was low; 119 operations and interventions were performed. The most common cause of death in this study was heart failure. Subclavian arteries, carotid arteries, and type V were the most frequently involved arteries and angiography pattern in this Chinese TAK study. The difference in angiographic features may lead to differences in clinical manifestations. Surgical operation and interventions should be performed at different stages of the disease course.

To analyze the causes of death and the related risk factors for in-patients with Takayasu arteritis (TAK) admitted to a referral center of China during 1983 to 2014. The medical charts of 12 deceased TAK patients (10 women, 2 men) were reviewed by two senior rheumatologists. The demographic data, clinical manifestations, angiographic presentations, and the direct causes of death were analyzed retrospectively. Medical records of 40 TAK patients (32 women, 8 men) were selected as controls by age and sex matching method from 81 patients who were sampled isometrically from 810 successively admitted TAK in-patients of the same center during the same period. In addition to the comparison of clinical manifestations between the two groups, binary logistic regression was conducted to explore the related risk factors of mortality of TAK. Twelve patients died at the median age of 33.5 (ranging from 13 to 68 years old). The median survival time was 102.5(ranging from 6 to 567) months. The direct causes of death were heart failure in 5 (5/12, 41.7%), hemorrhage in 2 (2/12, 16.7%), pulmonary infection in 2 (2/12, 16.7%), sudden death in 1 (1/12, 8.3%), postoperative complication in 1 (1/12, 8.3%), and end-stage malignancy in 1 (1/12, 8.3%). Ischemia (4/12, 33.3%) and hemorrhage (4/12, 33.3%) were the two most common presentations in deceased patients. Eight patients had received surgical procedures related to TAK changes. Among them, 2 patients died after surgical procedure, the other 6 patients died later of non-operation-related causes. Compared with the control group (n = 40), patients in the deceased group had longer disease duration (P = 0.017), higher proportion of active disease (P = 0.020), secondary hypertension (P = 0.004), and congestive heart failure (P = 0.017). A model of binary logistic regression had revealed that secondary hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 9.333, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.721 – 50.614, P = 0.010), congestive heart failure (OR = 5.667, 95% CI: 1.248 – 25.734, P = 0.025), and longer disease duration (OR = 1.007, 95% CI: 1.001 – 0.735, P = 0.027) were risk factors for TAK mortality. Active disease (OR = 0.167, 95% CI: 0.038 – 50.614, P = 0.018) was negatively associated with death of TAK. Heart failure is the leading cause of death in TAK patients, followed by ischemia and pulmonary infection. Early deaths occur postoperatively but become rare later after the procedure. Well-control of hypertension, and prevention of congestive heart failure may improve the long-term prognosis.

Thrombocytopenia, a frequent clinical manifestation in patients with APS, could be an independent predictor of recurrent thrombotic, obstetric and severe extracriteria events. This single-centre prospective study enrolled 218 consecutive patients diagnosed with primary APS between 2010 and 2021. Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count less than 100 × 10⁹/L. Our cohort included 74 (33.94%) patients with thrombocytopenia and 144 patients with a continuous normal platelet count. Comparison of baseline characteristics indicated that patients with thrombocytopenia had more visceral venous thromboses [10 (13.51%) vs 5(3.47%); P = 0.009] and extracriteria manifestations [mainly haemolytic anaemia; 20 (27.03%) vs 17 (11.81%); P = 0.007]. Hypocomplementemia was more likely among patients with thrombocytopenia [19 (25.68%) vs 16 (11.11%); P = 0.01]. The presence of aCL-IgG/IgM, anti-β2-glycoprotein I and lupus anticoagulant were more frequently detected in patients with thrombocytopenia. In survival analysis, thrombotic, obstetric and severe extracriteria survival rates were significantly worse in patients with thrombocytopenia. In multivariate Cox regression, thrombocytopenia was an independent risk factor for all endpoint events, including thrombotic events [hazard ratio (HR) 2.93 (95% CI 1.31, 6.56), P = 0.009], pregnancy morbidity [HR 8.00 (95% CI 2.43, 26.37), P = 0.0006] and severe extracriteria events [HR 15.27 (95% CI 1.85, 125.98), P = 0.01]. Thrombocytopenia could identify primary APS patients at high risk of developing thrombotic events, pregnancy morbidity and severe extracriteria events.

Thickened synovium with a hypoxic oxygenation status as measured with photoacoustic imaging was associated with fewer Doppler US signals and higher disease activity in study participants with rheum... Background Synovial hypoxia is a hallmark of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Photoacoustic (PA) imaging, based on the use of laser-generated US, can detect the oxygenation status of tissue in individual...

Rheumatology key messageTofacitinib may be an alternative for the treatment of refractory TAK.