Impact of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis on the patients’ quality of life

Objective: To determine the impact of various rheumatic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis [RA], psoriatic arthritis [PsA] and ankylosing spondylitis [AS] 0n the quality of life [QOL] of those patients and correlate their functional status, disease activity and severity with their QOL

Subjects: The study was performed on 3 groups of patients. Group I included 30 RA patients, they were 25 females and 5 males, Group 11 included 30 PSA patients sujfering from psoriatic skin lesion and arthropathy, they were 18 females and 12 males. While Group III included 12 AS patiehts, they were 2 females and 10 males

Methodology: The sociodemographic data for all patients were collected including age, sex, duration of disease, status of living and educational level. Evaluation of functional disability, disease activity, severity and disease-specific quality of life questionnaire for each group were done

Results: There was a significant association between high QOL score [poor QOL] and female sex in groups I and II, while there was no significant association observed in group III. Also, a significant association occurred between high QOL score in the 3 groups of the study and low educational level. While no association was noticed with the status of living in any of the groups of the study. Also, no significant correlation was observed between QOL and age or duration of the disease. While a high significant correlation occurred between poor QOL and measures of functional disability disease activity and severity of the disease in each group

Conclusion: Chronic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis have a substantial impact on health and quality of life. Since clinical outcome and QOL are two different concepts of health, so measurements of both provides us with complementary information on the extent and severity of a disease and the burden of a disease and its treatment to the patients

Lipoid proteinosis: clinical, histopatthological and ultrastructural study

This study demonstrated the reduplication of basal laminae of basement membrane zone and thickened papillary dermis with a marked deposition of hyaline-like material interspersed between thin separated collagen fibrils. Immediately surrounding the blood vessel walls, hyaline deposits were seen together with the reduplication of basal laminae in an onion-like arrangement. The fibroblasts, epithelial cells of eccrine sweat glands and dermal histiocytes showed vacuolated cytoplasm with several types of lysosomes, i.e. empty with curved tubular profiles or farber-like inclusions. Some dermal nerve endings showed dystrophic axons with multiple dense laminated bodies in axoplasm

Immunohistochemical demonstration of carcinoembryonic antigen and related antigens in some cutaneous diseases

Carcinoembryonic antigen [CEA] which has long been believed to be expressed only in the sweat gland and its neoplasms in the skin, is expressed more commonly in normal. Inflammatory and neoplastic skin conditions than previously thought. But, the detail of expression is still little known. To investigate the expression of CEA and CEA related antigens [CEA family] in some cutaneous diseases, we performed immunohistochemical study to detect the antigens in formalin fixed, paraffin embedded biopsy specimens of verruca vulgaris, squamous cell carcinoma [SCC], basal cell carcinoma [BCC], psoriasis vulgaris and eczema using a polyclonal antibody against human CEA family. Expression of CEA family was demonstrated in verruca vulgaris, SCC, psoriasis vulgaris and chronic eczema. No detectable expression was seen in BCC, acute and subacute eczema. All expressions were limited to the keratinocytes in the upper epidermal cell layers. An additional expression was seen in regions of parakeratosis, acanthosis, inflammatory cell infiltration and at the centre of tumour islands in SCC. On the basis of the distribution of this expression, an additional role for CEA family is suggested differing from its roles as tumour markers and adhesion molecules. This role may be associated with the state of differentiation or epidermal keratinocytes; particularly of those which have gained hyperproliferative activity due to inflammatory and neoplastic aetiologies