M A Gonzalez-Gay

..The presence of abnormal carotid IMT (>0.90 mm) or carotid plaques would lead to these patients being considered as having high CV risk regardless of the results derived from the modified SCORE...

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..These findings may ultimately provide new insights into disease pathogenesis...

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..The objective was to investigate the potential implication of the IL18 gene promoter polymorphisms in the susceptibility to giant-cell arteritis (GCA)...

..We also assessed whether the infusion of infliximab may alter circulating leptin concentrations in patients with severe RA...

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..In conclusion, the current study confirms a progressive increase in the incidence of biopsy-proven GCA in northwestern Spain, and suggests that there has been a change in the clinical spectrum of the disease...

..We assessed the contribution of epidemiologic features, clinical features, routine laboratory markers of inflammation, and HLA-DRB1 alleles to CV mortality in patients with RA prospectively followed at a single referral center in Spain...

..Recent studies have also emphasized the positive effect of anti-TNF-alpha blockade in improving endothelial dysfunction in RA patients. However, this effect seems to be transient and in line with the persistence of chronic inflammation...

..Alternative corticosteroid-sparing therapies and some therapeutic agents aimed at restoring balanced bone cell activity in patients taking corticosteroids are potentially useful in the management of GCA and PMR...

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..Corticosteroids are the cornerstone treatment of GCA. Studies using other drugs have yielded contradictory results...

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..We assess whether endothelial dysfunction was also present in patients with biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA) and whether it might be improved following steroid treatment...

..We further assessed associations of circulating resistin concentrations with CRP and ESR levels, platelet counts and metabolic syndrome and demographic characteristics in RA patients on periodical treatment with infliximab...

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..Due to this, in cases of localized gastrointestinal vasculitis a complete evaluation of the patient to exclude the presence of a systemic a potentially threatening systemic vasculitis is required...

..The aim of our study was to analyze the influence of the CCR5?32 polymorphism in the risk of cardiovascular (CV) events and subclinical atherosclerosis among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

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..Moreover, the polymorphisms of other genes, such as interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, seem to be implicated in disease severity in patients with cutaneous vasculitis...

..These results highlight the importance of therapies that act blocking TNF-alpha function to reduce the mechanisms implicated in the development of the metabolic syndrome observed in RA...

..Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is a relatively frequent condition in individuals older than 50 who originate from Western countries. Corticosteroids constitute the cornerstone therapy in the management of patients with PMR...

..We also assessed whether the infusion of infliximab may alter circulating visfatin concentrations in patients with severe RA...

..In the present study we investigated whether the infusion of the anti-TNF-alpha-infliximab may yield a short-term effect altering circulating NO oxidation products in patients with severe RA...

..Results also suggest a potential protective role of anemia against the development of these cerebrovascular complications...

..Also, interactions between NOS2A or NOS3 gene polymorphisms and HLA-DRB1 alleles for the risk of developing CV events were assessed...

..30-0.94; p = 0.03). In conclusion, our results suggest that some laboratory markers of inflammation, in particular the presence of anemia, may negatively predict the risk of severe ischemic complications in GCA patients...

..The importance of the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with polymyalgia symptoms is underlined...

..HLA-DRB1 shared epitope alleles, in particular HLA-DRB1*0404, seem to be implicated in the development of endothelial dysfunction. These results underline the influence of genetic factors in the risk of atherosclerosis in RA patients...

..To assess the influence of inducible and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (iNOS and eNOS) polymorphisms in susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..The presence of other ischemic complications constitutes an alarm for the development of irreversible blindness. In contrast, a higher inflammatory response may be a protective factor against the development of cranial ischemic events...

..To assess whether differences exist between this group of patients and the rest of biopsy-proven GCA patients...

..In this article, we examine the role of different genes as markers of disease susceptibility and severity in GCA and PMR...

..To assess the epidemiology of the primary systemic vasculitides (PSV) in a well-defined population of southern Europe over a 14-year period using the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference (CHCC) definitions...

..The present study confirms a high frequency of audiovestibular manifestations in GCA. It also suggests that audiovestibular damage may be reversible in some patients with GCA...

..To investigate further the genetic influence of IL-6 in GCA and PMR we have examined the IL-6 promoter polymorphism (G to C) at position -174 in the 5' region in a series of patients from Northwest Spain diagnosed with GCA and/or PMR...

..To investigate the possible implications of the CRH promoter polymorphisms in PMR and GCA susceptibility we have examined a series of patients with these conditions...

..Increased physician awareness and the routine use of ANCA tests may contribute to an increase in the recognition of conditions such as WG and MPA...

..However, additional studies are required to clarify the genetic influence on susceptibility to these conditions...

..To investigate further the epidemiology of GCA in southern Europe the trend in incidence and fluctuations of this vasculitis over 18 years in the Lugo region of northwestern Spain were examined...

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..GCA patients having these features should be monitored for the existence of aortic aneurysm and dissection...

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..In this study we have examined the potential association of a CA repeat polymorphism in the first intron of the interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) gene with disease susceptibility and clinical expression of these conditions...

..To assess the incidence, mortality, and predictors of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in patients from the Lugo region of Northwest Spain with biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA)...

..It outlines the work-up for assessing patients with cutaneous vasculitis and discusses the essential features of the main conditions included within this category...

..We examined the relationship between carotid IMT to C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), which are the most commonly assessed markers of inflammatory response in patients with RA...

..In this article, a review of mechanisms implicated in the development of accelerated atherogenesis in RA was performed. The potential role of treatment to reduce the incidence of CV events in RA was also discussed...

..80; 95% CI, 1.00-3.25; p = 0.05). The current study suggests that the presence of atherosclerosis risk factors at the time of diagnosis of GCA may influence the development of severe ischemic manifestations of the disease...

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..To replicate the described association between MHC class I chain-related A (MICA) gene polymorphism and susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)...

..001, OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.35-2.79). No association with clinical features was detected in any case. These results suggest that both, MIF -173(*)C allele and CATT(7)-MIF -173(*)C haplotype, confer susceptibility to SLE in our population...

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..Our data suggest that the IRF3 polymorphisms do not appear to play a major role in the susceptibility or severity of SLE in a Spanish population...

..In this study we investigated the possible contribution of several polymorphisms in the functional Ghrelin receptor to RA susceptibility...

..To assess the potential association between LEP rs2167270 (19 G>A) gene polymorphism and disease susceptibility and cardiovascular disease (CV) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...

..The aim of the current study was to investigate, for the first time, the possible involvement of the IL23R gene in genetic susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS)...

..The aim of the current study was to investigate the possible implication of the IL23R gene in SSc susceptibility and/or clinical phenotype...

..In conclusion, the p53 codon 72 polymorphism associated with SLE in a Korean population does not appear to play a major role in the susceptibility or severity of SLE in the Spanish population...

..This observation emphasizes the potential role of the TNF-alpha blockade in the mechanisms implicated in the development of atherogenesis in RA...

..To examine whether polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and late onset rheumatoid arthritis have identical or similar HLA-DRB1 genetic associations...

..To assess the potential influence of the age in the clinical spectrum of giant cell arteritis (GCA)...

..The aim of this study was to assess the potential contribution of HLA-class I MICA and HLA-B gene polymorphisms towards the pathogenesis of giant cell arteritis (GCA)...

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..We emphasize the potential pathogenic role of infection as the trigger factor for the development of systemic vasculitis...

..Vertebrobasilar accidents are more common than carotid accidents at the time of diagnosis of the disease. Vascular risk factors should be carefully controlled in the follow-up of GCA patients...

..In conclusion, our results do not confirm an association of IL6R rs2228145 and IL6ST/gp130 rs2228044 polymorphisms with CV disease in RA...

..To assess the prevalence of HLA-B27 and its subtypes in both the normal population and in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) in Galicia, Northwest Spain...

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..Although the etiology of generalized Gan and GCA remains still unknown, they seem to be immunologically mediated conditions showing predominance of T-cells in the inflammatory infiltrate...

..To assess the potential association between the rs1343151 IL23R and the rs3790567 IL12RB2 polymorphisms and giant cell arteritis (GCA). We also studied whether these polymorphisms might influence the phenotypic expression of GCA...