Scleromyositis: A Novel Entity Beyond Systemic Sclerosis and Autoimmune Myositis.

Scleromyositis is a new clinical entity, which not only has clinical and histopathological components of systemic sclerosis and inflammatory myopathy but is also characterized by presenting unique characteristics, which may not be in the previously mentioned diseases. Up until now, there are no specific classification criteria proposed by the American College of Rheumatology or the European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR). This paper presents a case report of a female patient in her 60s who was admitted to our institution due to muscle weakness in her legs and dysphagia. Within her diagnosis approach, clinical characteristics compatible with autoimmune myopathy were found; however, she presented with anti-PM/Scl75 antibody-positive results. In this paper, we emphasized the clinical characteristics and forms of presentation of scleromyositis, additionally discussing the available treatment for this entity.

Comorbilidades en pacientes con infección por Covid-19 grave posvacunación en el Hospital Juárez de México.

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Correction to: Serum substance P: an indicator of disease activity and subclinical inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis.

Following publication, it was brought to the authors' attention by Dr. Julia Toscano-Garibay that she did not participate as a reviewer of the final version of this manuscript prior to its submission and publication in Clinical Rheumatology.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and TNFR1 polymorphisms are not risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis in a Mexican population.

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Different genetic variants including the TNF -308G/A polymorphism are associated with RA susceptibility. However, these findings have not been replicated in all populations. The aim of this study was to determine whether the TNF -1031T/C (rs1799964), -376G/A (rs1800750), -308G/A (rs1800629) -238G/A (rs361525), and TNFR1 -609G/T polymorphisms are associated with RA susceptibility in a sample of Mexican patients. Our study included 499 patients with RA and 492 healthy controls. The genotypes of the TNF polymorphisms were obtained using TaqMan assay. The genotype and allele frequencies of the TNF -1031T/C, -376G/A, -308G/A, -238G/A, and TNFR1 -609G/T polymorphisms were similar among RA cases versus healthy controls, and no association with RA susceptibility was identified. Our results suggest that the TNF -1031T/C, -376G/A, -308G/A, -238G/A, and TNFR1 -609G/T polymorphisms are not associated with RA susceptibility in a sample of Mexican patients.

Serum substance P: an indicator of disease activity and subclinical inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of the is study is to examine the role of serum substance P (SP) levels as a simple biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity, its correlation with other markers of disease activity, and with selected clinical parameters. The study comprised 90 RA patients and 24 healthy controls. RA activity was assessed by means of the disease activity 28-C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP) index and ultrasound power Doppler (USPD) by the German ultrasound score based on seven joints. SP serum values were obtained by means of an ELISA commercial kit. Statistics were achieved by the Student's t test and Spearman correlation analysis with Bonferroni correction. As a group, RA patients had significantly increased levels of SP compared with healthy controls (p < 0.0001). SP levels correlated with DAS28-CRP (r = 0.5050, p < 0.0001), number of tender joints (NTJ, r = 0.4668, p < 0.0001), number of swollen joints (NSJ, r = 0.4439, p < 0.0001), visual analogue scale (VAS, r = 0.5131, p < 0.0001). However, SP did not correlate with CRP levels (r = 0.0468, p = 0.6613), nor with the USPD (r = 0.1740, p = 0.1009). Elevated serum SP is a common feature of RA patients, which also appears to correlate with clinical measurements of disease activity and with subjective clinical data (NTJ and VAS). Thus, although SP is higher in RA patients with high disease activity, it also detects subtle RA disease activity even in patients in apparent remission, which suggests its usefulness for therapeutic decisions.

Ambroxol for fibromyalgia: one group pretest-posttest open-label pilot study.

A consistent line of investigation proposes that fibromyalgia is a sympathetically maintained neuropathic pain syndrome. Dorsal root ganglia sodium channels may play a major role in fibromyalgia pain transmission. Ambroxol is a secretolytic agent used in the treatment of various airway disorders. Recently, it was discovered that this compound is also an efficient sodium channel blocker with potent anti-neuropathic pain properties. We evaluated the add-on effect of ambroxol to the treatment of fibromyalgia. We studied 25 patients with fibromyalgia. Ambroxol was prescribed at the usual clinical dose of 30 mg PO 3 times a day × 1 month. At the beginning and at the end of the study, all participants filled out the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ-R) and the 2010 ACR diagnostic criteria including the widespread pain index (WPI). At the end of the study, FIQ-R decreased from a baseline value of 62 ± 15 to 51 ± 19 (p = 0.013). Pain visual analogue scale decreased from 77 ± 14 to 56 ± 30 (p = 0.018). WPI diminished from 14.6 ± 3.1 to 10.4 ± 5.3 (p = 0.001). Side effects were minor. In this pilot study, the use of ambroxol was associated to decreased fibromyalgia pain and improved fibromyalgia symptoms. The open nature of our study does not allow extracting the placebo effect from the positive results. The drug was well tolerated. Ambroxol newly recognized pharmacological properties could theoretically interfere with fibromyalgia pain pathways. Dose escalating-controlled studies seem warranted.