ABSTRACT
Objective Bamboo node (BN) of vocal folds is a rare disease which is mostly associated with autoimmune diseases and always involves women as reported in literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical characteristics and the treatments in a series of BN cases. Methods We retrospectively collected and reviewed clinical information of all patients who presented bamboo nodes by fibreoptic laryngoscopy from 2011 to 2020 in our hospital, including the demographic information, clinical symptoms, associated autoimmune diseases, voice abuse, treatments, and outcomes. Patients were followed up periodically at clinics with fibreoptic laryngoscopy and/or voice recovery evaluation using the self-assessed voice visual analog scale (VAS). Results Totally 14 patients were diagnosed with BN and were included in the study. BN involved both women (8/14, 57.1%) and men (6/14, 42.9%). Bilateral lesions were found in 13 patients (92.9%). The most common symptom of BN was hoarseness (100%). Ten (71.4%) of 14 patients experienced voice abuse. Thirteen (92.9%) of them were concomitant with autoimmunity disease, and received medication therapy for the underlying autoimmune diseases; one patient received anti-acid treatment for the gastroesophageal reflux disease. Voice rests were performed in all patients. Voice recovered completely in 3 cases (21.4%), improved remarkably in 8 cases (57.1%), improved slightly in 1 case (7.1%), and no improvement in 2 cases (14.3%). Conclusions BNs are mostly associated with autoimmune disease and vocal abuse. It may occur in both females and males. Conservative treatment for the underlying autoimmune diseases and vocal rest are beneficial to voice recovery in most of the patients, and can be used as the first choice of treatment.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Approximately 15-20% cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are diagnosed in children. There have been a few studies reporting the epidemiological data of pediatric-onset SLE (cSLE) in China, neither comparing the differences between cSLE and adult-onset SLE (aSLE). The aim of this study was to describe the impact of age of onset on clinical features and survival in cSLE patients in China based on the Chinese SLE Treatment and Research group (CSTAR) database.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We made a prospective study of 225 cSLE patients (aged Results: The mean age of cSLE patients was 12.16 ± 2.92 years, with 187 (83.1%) females. Fever (P < 0.001) as well as mucocutaneous (P < 0.001) and renal (P = 0.006) disorders were found to be significantly more frequent in cSLE patients as initial symptoms, while muscle and joint lesions were significantly less common compared to aSLE subjects (P < 0.001). The cSLE patients were found to present more frequently with malar rash (P = 0.001; odds ratio [OR], 0.624; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.470-0.829) but less frequently with arthritis (P < 0.001; OR, 2.013; 95% CI, 1.512-2.679) and serositis (P = 0.030; OR, 1.629; 95% CI, 1.053-2.520). There was no significant difference in SLE disease activity index scores between cSLE and aSLE groups (P = 0.478). Cox regression indicated that childhood onset was the risk factor for organ damage in lupus patients (hazard ratio 0.335 [0.170-0.658], P = 0.001). The survival curves between the cSLE and aSLE groups had no significant difference as determined by the log-rank test (0.557, P = 0.455).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>cSLE in China has different clinical features and more inflammation than aSLE patients. Damage may be less in children and there is no difference in 5- year survival between cSLE and aSLE groups.</p>