Assessment of fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis (by Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue score) and its relation to disease activity and anemia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) mention fatigue as one of their most annoying problems. Measuring fatigue, understanding its contributory factors, and treating it as a feasible target lead to better patient outcome and improved quality of life. The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System is a collection of health-related quality-of-life questionnaires targeted to the management of chronic illness. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate fatigue using FACIT-Fatigue (FACIT-F) score and its relation to disease activity (using Disease Activity Score [DAS28] and Clinical Disease Activity Index [CDAI] score) and anemia in RA patients. METHODS: A total of 100 RA patients were evaluated for fatigue using FACIT-F score, for disease activity using DAS28 and CDAI scores, for anemia using hemoglobin levels. Correlation studies were done using Pearson test. RESULTS: Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue showed positive association with DAS28 (P < 0.001; r = -0.80) and CDAI (P < 0.001; r = -0.83). Considering various components of DAS28 and CDAI, FACIT-F showed significant correlation with tender joint count (P < 0.001; r = -0.73), swollen joint count (P < 0.001; r = -0.76), patient global assessment (P < 0.001; r = -0.72), and evaluator global assessment (P < 0.001; r = -0.75). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate had no association with the fatigue (P = 0.217). No association was observed between fatigue and hemoglobin levels (P = 0.203). CONCLUSION: The fatigue experienced by the patients with RA is strongly associated with the severity of disease activity and is independent of anemia.

Spectroscopic correlation and role of Azathioprine in long-term remission in patients of Hashimoto encephalopathy.

Hashimoto encephalopathy remains a Rubik's cube for the present generation of clinical research. Myriad presentations have been noted, and observations recorded in few subgroups of patients have gone on only to be trashed by a second group of patients with a completely different clinical profile. Steroids have been traditionally held to be the treatment for this condition, but long-term side effects associated with it limits its use. Although multiple drugs have been tried, yet there exists no data for their long-term efficacy in maintaining remission. No radiological findings have been consistently associated with this condition. We report the use of azathioprine in maintaining long-term remission in one such patient with Hashimoto encephalopathy and the presence of lactate peak in magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the patient, which showed dramatic regression with institution of immunosuppression.

Exacerbation of latent lupus: is the culprit acid-fast bacilli or antitubercular therapy?

Typical as well as atypical presentations of systemic lupus erythematosus are being increasingly recognized due to improved diagnostic methods. In a tuberculosis-endemic country like India, it was traditionally believed that the occurrence of tuberculosis in lupus was due to the chronic immunosuppression caused by lupus or because of the use of steroids or isoniazid-induced lupus. Increasingly several patients with no recorded predisposition to lupus with a history of treatment for tuberculosis are coming with evidence of systemic lupus erythematosus rather than a drug-limited story. Whether the development of an autoimmune state is a mere conjecture or the presence of acid-fast bacilli in the body for a prolonged duration causes complex antigenic interactions leading to an antigenic response needs to be looked into. We present a report of three such patients and review the pathogenetic interactions that could possibly explain the role of mycobacterial antigens as a putative antigen in the pathogenesis of lupus.

Role of magnesium sulfate in neuroprotection in acute ischemic stroke.

AIMS: To study the effect of intravenous magnesium sulfate infusion on clinical outcome of patients of acute stroke. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty consecutive cases of acute ischemic stroke hospitalised within 24 h of an episode of stroke were taken as subjects. All subjects underwent a computed tomography head, and those found to have evidence of bleed/space-occupying lesions were excluded from the study. The subjects taken up for the study were divided into two groups of 30 subjects each. Both the groups received the standard protocol management for acute ischemic stroke. Subjects of Group 1 additionally received intravenous magnesium sulfate as initial 4 g bolus dose over 15 min followed by 16 g as slow infusion over the next 24 h. In all the subjects of the two study groups, serum magnesium levels were estimated at the time of admission (Day 0), Day 1 and Day 2 of hospitalization using an atomic absorption spectrometer. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Scandinavian stroke scores were calculated on Day 3, day of discharge and Day 28. Paired t-test was employed for comparison of stroke scores on Day 3, day of discharge and Day 28 within the same group and the unpaired t-test was used for the intergroup comparison, i.e. comparison of stroke scores of control group with corresponding stroke scores of magnesium group. RESULTS: Comparison of stroke scores on Day 3 and day of discharge, on the day of discharge and Day 28 and on Day 3 and Day 28 in the magnesium group produced a t-value of 5.000 and P <0.001, which was highly significant. However, the comparison of the mean stroke scores between the magnesium and the control groups on Day 3, day of discharge and Day 28 yielded a P-value of >0.05, which was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The study failed to document a statistical significant stroke recovery in spite of achieving a significant rise in serum magnesium level, more than that necessary for neuroprotection, with an intravenous magnesium sulfate regime.

Assessment of hand functions in rheumatoid arthritis using SF-SACRAH (short form score for the assessment and quantification of chronic rheumatoid affections of the hands) and its correlation to disease activity.

Rheumatoid arthritis activity is generally evaluated by using DAS-28 score. But this does not reflect the extent of functional hand impairment, a decisive parameter for patient wellbeing as well as for work disability. Several questionnaires to quantify the hand involvement in RA have been elaborated, amongst which SACRAH has been popular since 2003. But this requires evaluating 23 questions on a visual analogue scale. The questions were reduced to 12 in modified-SACRAH (M-SACRAH) and to only five questions in short form SACRAH (SF-SACRAH) so as to make it easily applicable in daily clinical practice. A study was planned to compare M-SACRAH (already validated) to SF-SACRAH in Indian population as no Indian data are available on the same. A total of 100 patients of RA were evaluated for disease activity using DAS-28 score and hand functions using M-SACRAH and SF-SACRAH. The M-SACRAH and SF-SACRAH were then compared based on DAS-28 scores; also M-SACRAH was compared to SF-SACRAH using Spearman's correlation coefficient. The mean value of DAS-28 score was 3.15 ± 0.86. The mean value of SF-SACRAH was 8.065 ± 7.44, and mean value of M-SACRAH was 201.7 ± 201.1008. The correlation of DAS-28 score to SF-SACRAH and M-SACRAH was significant in moderate and high disease activity but insignificant in remission and low disease activity state. The correlation between M-SACRAH and SF-SACRAH showed a spearman's coefficient of 0.998 with a P value of <0.001 (significant correlation). Correlation was significant for all disease activity states and for remission. The study suggests that the disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis (as assessed by DAS-28 score) has a poor correlation with hand functions (as assessed by M-SACRAH and SF-SACRAH) especially in low disease activity and remission states. Further, M-SACRAH and SF-SACRAH are significantly correlated. Therefore, it is suggested that RA patients should be assessed by SF-SACRAH (which includes five questions only) in addition to DAS-28 scoring for better evaluation of hand functions, a detrimental factor in day to day performance of RA patients.

Evaluation of role of doxycycline (a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor) on renal functions in patients of diabetic nephropathy.

This study was conducted to see the effect of doxycycline on renal functions, especially proteinuria, in patients of diabetic nephropathy (DN). The study included 40 clinically proven adult patients of DN. All patients were on stable doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) for 2 months before the study. The patients were divided into two groups of 20 patients each. Group A patients were maintained on stable dose of ACEIs and/or ARBs, whereas Group B patients received doxycycline (100 mg/day) for a period of 3 months in addition to ACEIs and or ARBs. Adequate glycemic control was achieved with insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents in all the patients. Renal parameters were assessed at the beginning of the study, at 1, 3, and 6 months (after a washout period of 3 months). All renal parameters remained unaltered during the study in both groups. However, proteinuria showed improvement in Group B (doxcycycline group).The mean basal value of proteinuria was 1.74 + 1.70 for Group A and 2.17 + 2.95 for Group B. At the end of 3 months, proteinuria was 1.22 + 2.11 in Group B whereas it was 1.50 + 1.50 in Group A (p < 0.05). However, the decrease in proteinuria at 6 months in the two groups did not show any statistically significant difference. No significant side effects of doxycycline were observed. The study showed that doxycycline was effective in reducing proteinuria in patients of DN when used for the short duration of 3 months.