ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Smoking has a well-established detrimental effect on the prognosis and treatment success in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. It is important to encourage and convince patients to quit smoking. We aimed to evaluate the contribution of rheumatologists to smoking cessation in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. METHODS: This single-center cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary research hospital between March 2022 and June 2022. The data related to demographics, smoking status, duration of smoking, average number of cigarettes smoked per day, reasons for quitting smoking, and methods of quitting smoking were obtained through face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: This study was carried out on 308 patients. A total of 102 ankylosing spondylitis patients quit smoking. Of the patients who quit smoking, 39 (38.3%) patients quit smoking with a recommendation of a rheumatologist and 29 (28.4%) patients quit because of their concerns related to ankylosing spondylitis disease. The most commonly used methods for quitting smoking were herbal supplements in 40 (39.2%) patients and medication for smoking cessation in 40 (39.2%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: It has been shown that about one-fifth of ankylosing spondylitis patients are not questioned by a rheumatologist about smoking. On the other hand, it was seen that the factor with the greatest effect on those who quit smoking was the rheumatologist. Therefore, rheumatologists should question all ankylosing spondylitis patients about smoking and encourage smokers to quit in order to achieve better outcomes in the long term.
ABSTRACT
AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate relapse rates in azathioprine (AZA) maintenance therapy at different doses in Behçet's disease (BD) with venous involvement. METHOD: Clinical records of patients who met the diagnostic criteria of International Study Group (ISG) for BD, were diagnosed with venous involvement of BD for at least 6 months and sustained clinical remission with AZA for at least 3 months were analyzed retrospectively. The analysis cohort was divided into 2 groups based on AZA dose (Group A: ≥ 2 mg/kg/d and Group B: <2 mg/kg/d). Relapse was defined as requiring another antirheumatic/immunosuppressive drug or more than dose of 10 mg/d of prednisolone. RESULTS: Of 78 patients who were included into the study, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of age, gender and clinical characteristics. Mean relapse-free survival time was found to be higher in group A compared to group B (111.6 ± 11.2, 95% CI 89.5 ± 133.8 versus 51.5 ± 6.1, 95% CI 39.5 ± 63.4 months). CONCLUSION: Relapse-free survival rate was less in the group receiving low-dose AZA and shows the importance of effective dose of AZA in maintenance therapy.
