Role of joint damage, malalignment and inflammation in articular tenderness in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether clinical tenderness can be considered a sign of inflammatory joint activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and to assess other possible factors associated with tenderness. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with RA, PsA and OA underwent clinical and ultrasound examination of wrists and finger joints. Radiographs of the hands were scored for erosions, joint space narrowing (JSN), osteophytes and malalignment. A binary damage score (positive if ≥1 erosion, JSN and/or presence of malalignment) was calculated. Differences in grey scale signs of synovitis and power Doppler (PD) between tender non-swollen (TNS) versus non-tender non-swollen (NTNS) joints were calculated. Disease duration was assessed,<2 years was regarded as early and >5 years as long-standing arthritis. RESULTS: In total, 34 patients (9 early and 14 long-standing) from patients with RA, 31 patients (7 early and 15 long-standing) with PsA and 30 with OA were included. We found equal frequencies of PD signal between TNS and NTNS joints in RA (p=0.18), PsA (p=0.59) or OA (p=0.96). However, PD had a significant association with tenderness in early arthritis both in RA (p=0.02) and in PsA (p=0.02). The radiographic damage score showed significant association with tenderness in RA (p<0.01), PsA (p<0.01) and OA (p=0.04). CONCLUSION: Tenderness might not always be a sign of active inflammation in RA, PsA and OA. While tenderness in early arthritis may be more related to inflammation, established disease is better explained by joint damage and malalignment.

Does grandpa care, too? - Discriminative grandparental investment is associated with phenotypic resemblance and sociodemographic parameters in an Austrian sample.

Typical patterns of discriminative grandparental investment i.e. high investment provided by the maternal grandmother and low investment provided by the paternal grandfather, are mainly interpreted based on the "paternity uncertainty hypothesis". Accordingly, especially paternal grandfathers are confronted with a double risk of investing in genetically unrelated grandchildren. The present study focuses on the impact of phenotypic resemblance between parents and grandparents on grandparental investment. 94 female and 83 male participants aged 19 to 40 years (x = 27.4; SD = 5.8) were enrolled in the retrospective analysis. An online questionnaire, specifically developed for this study, was used for data collection. In line with predictions, the highest investment, contact frequency and best relationship were found for maternal grandmothers, while paternal grandfathers showed the lowest investment patterns. Phenotypic resemblance between parents and grandfathers enhanced grandfathers' investment significantly, but resemblance had no effect in the case of maternal grandmothers. We conclude that phenotypic similarities can be interpreted as indicators of genetic relatedness and therefore increase grandparental investment among those grandparents, who are confronted with paternity uncertainty, i.e. paternal grandmother and maternal as well as paternal grandfather.