Clinical application and long-term safety of hydroxychloroquine in rheumatic diseases / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective:To explore the clinical application and long-term safety of hydroxychloroquine sulfate (HCQ) in the treatment of rheumatic diseases.Methods:A multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2017 and August 2018 in a random sample of eleven medical institutions of rheumatology and immunology in China. Patients who took HCQ for more than 3 months were enrolled into this study. The cumulative dose and long-term side effects of HCQ were recorded. The changes of laboratory indexes before and after treatment with HCQ were analyzed. Categorical variables were presented with counts and proportions, and evaluated by Chi-square test. Continuous parametric data were presented as Mean±standard deviation, and evaluated by Student's t test or Mann-Whitney U test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results:A total of 886 patients with rheumatic diseases were enrolled into this study, including 505 cases with systemic lupus erythematosus (57.0%), 210 cases with rheumatoid arthritis (23.7%), 80 cases with Sj?gren's syndrome (9.0%), 57 cases with undifferentiated connective tissue disease (6.4%), 12 cases of systemic vasculitis (1.4%), 10 cases of mixed connective tissue disease (1.1%), 7 cases of myositis (0.8%) and 5 cases with systemic sclerosis (0.6%). The most common long-term side effects of HCQ was skin or mucous lesions (12.4%) and vision problems (8.0%). Other adverse reactions included problems of digestive system (3.0%), nervous system (2.1%), musculoskeletal system (1.1%) and cardiovascular system (0.9%). 140 cases (15.8%) had stopped taking HCQ during the treatment. More than half of them decided to stop taking medicine by themselves. Fifty-four patients (6.1%) stopped using HCQ due to side effects while 24 of them took it again, and another 12 patients (1.4%) stopped the drug due to remission of illness. Patients were divided into three groups according to the cumulative dose of HCQ: less than 500 g, 500-1 000 g and more than 1 000 g respectively. There was significant difference in the incidence of long-term side effects among the three groups ( χ2=6.382, P=0.041). The last group (more than 1 000 g) suffered the highest incidence of long-term adverse reactions (37.1%). No severe adverse drug reactions were observed in this study. Conclusion:Hydroxychloroquine is widely used in the treatment of rheumatic diseases. The incidence of long-term side effects is 20.4%, is 6.1% lead to drug withdrawal, which are especially related to the cumulative doses. It should be adjusted properly according to the clinical application.

Analysis of clinical characteristics of Henoch-Schonlein purpura patients from different altitudes in plateau areas / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the clinical characteristics of Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) patients from different altitudes in Tibet plateau areas of China.@*METHODS@#A retrospective study was used to analyze the 190 HSP patients admitted to Tibet Autonomous Region People ' s Hospital form April 2014 to May 2021. The subjects were divided into 3 groups according to the altitude of long-term residence before onset and the clinical data at different altitudes were compared and analyzed.@*RESULTS@#There were no significant differences in the age of onset and gender in HSP patients at different altitudes (P>0.05). The HSP patients in high altitude areas were more likely to have digestive symptoms (P < 0.01). The patients were more likely to have kidney or joint involvement at higher altitudes. The platelets [(512.1±55.0)×109 /L] and C reactive protein [11.2 (5.7, 19.4) g/L] in high altitude areas were significantly higher than at medium altitudes [(498.3±76.9)×109 /L and 9.5 (4.6, 13.5) g/L] and lower altitudes [(456.4±81.2)×109/L and 3.7 (0.2, 8.9) g/L] respectively. The effective rate of treatment was 98.9%, while there was no significant difference of outcome from different altitudes (P>0.05). The patients who were repeatedly hospitalized all had kidney involvement and no immunosuppressive agents were added in the initial treatment.@*CONCLUSION@#HSP is common in high altitude areas. There was little difference in age of onset and gender at different altitudes. Abdominal pain was the most common clinical manifestation. Patients in high altitude areas were more likely to have severe abdominal problems. Kidney involvement may be poor prognostic factor. Early application of glucocorticoid combined with immunosuppressive agents can effectively control the disease and reduce the recurrence of HSP.

Clinical and immunological characteristics of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in Tibet plateau, China / 北京大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To describe the clinical, immunological characteristics and organ involvement of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Tibet plateau, China.@*METHODS@#We retrospectively investigated 70 patients admitted in the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Hospital between May 2014 and April 2016. In the study, 120 hospitalized patients with SLE from the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the Peking University People's Hospital were randomly selected as the control (plain) group. The major organ involvement, clinical and immunological characteristics were compared between the two groups.@*RESULTS@#The female to male ratio of Tibet plateau group was 10.7, while the corresponding ratio of plain group was 11.0. The mean age at disease diagnosis was (32.21±11.40) and (35.38±13.25) years, respectively. the most common initial manifestations of SLE were arthritis (78.6%), alopecia (55.7%) and malar rash (48.6%) in Tibet plateau group, the prevalence of arthritis and alopecia was significantly higher than in plain group (P<0.05). The incidence of neuropsychiatric and kidney involvement was significantly lower in Tibet plateau group compared with plain group (P<0.05). As for the serological manifestations, the positivity of anti-double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) (57.1%), anti-Smith (Sm) antibody (55.7%), anti-Sjögren syndrome A (SSA) antibody (72.3%), anti-Sjögren syndrome B (SSB) antibody (41.4%) and anti-u1-ribosenuclear protein (u1RNP) antibody (45.7%) was significantly higher in Tibet plateau group (P<0.05). While the incidence of low serum complement C3 (61.4%), C4 (38.6%) less frequent in Tibet plateau group. Mean SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) score was similar in the Tibet plateau group (12.18±5.58) and plain group (12.69±7.28). Moreover, there were 13 (18.6%) SLE patients suffering from tuberculosis and 7 (10%) SLE patients infected with hepatitis B virus in Tibet plateau group. The number of recent-onset SLE patients with lower 25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3 (25-OH-VD3) in Tibet plateau group was fewer than that in the plain group (76.7% vs. 90.0%, P=0.046). Serum 25-OH-VD3 levels in Tibet plateau plateau group were (31.14±18.74) nmol/L, those in plain group were (26.91±14.27) nmol/L, and the difference was not significant.@*CONCLUSION@#The age, gender and SLEDAI scores in Tibet plateau group was similar to those in plain group. But there are significant differences in clinical manifestations, distributions of antibodies and immunological changes between Tibet plateau group and plain group. The patients with lower serum 25-OH-VD3 levels were more in plain group than in Tibet plateau group, while there was no significant difference in the 25-OH-VD3 level between the two groups.