Amita Aggarwal

..In ERA the levels of IL-6 and IFN-g are higher than in Poly-JIA. The increase in IFN-g in children with ERA with undetectable IL-4 suggests a Th1-dominant immune response in this disease subset...

..IL1*RN2 homozygosity was more common in patients, whereas carriage rate for IL1*RN1 was less frequent in patients. Haplotype frequencies were also similar in both groups. IL-1 gene cluster is not a susceptibility locus for ERA...

..Recent reports suggest that the use of biologic agents offers potential for reduced work disability rates, but the conclusions are based on surrogate disease activity measures derived from studies primarily from Western countries...

..05). TARC/CCL17 levels in SF were lower than serum. There is increased homing of CCR5 and CXCR3(+) CD4 cells to the SF. Increased SF levels of IP-10/CXCL10 may be responsible for this migration in patients with ERA...

..The impact of the disease in different cultural and social backgrounds is varied. Limited data are available from India on this aspect...

..Juvenile and adult forms of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) have been shown to have different clinical presentation and outcome in Caucasians. We did this retrospective analysis to see if similar differences exist in the Indian population...

..We studied its effect on the production of two proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), by peripheral blood cells in patients with JRA...

..Tests with high sensitivity should be used for screening whereas tests with high specificity should be used for confirmation of diagnosis. Finally, mere presence of an abnormal test does not mean disease...

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..The role of additional constituents needs to be studied. Studies on the mechanism of action of the extract may yield potentially useful compounds for the treatment of inflammatory diseases...

..MTX inhibits T cell cytokine production, with significant interindividual variability in the dose required. We investigated if the variability in clinical response was related to variability in the in vitro assay...

..Indian patients with SLE have higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction. Presence of damage was associated with abnormal IMT in SLE patients...

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..On the other hand promoter polymorphisms of IL-10 did not affect susceptibility but polymorphism at -819/-592A was associated with higher disease activity scores at baseline...

..However, IL-23 was not detectable in SF. Good correlation between IL-17, IL-6, and IL 1β suggest that either they are co-regulated or they regulate each other...

..However, there was no difference in the levels of IL-12 between patients with and without history of infection. These data suggest that the autoantibodies to SSB/La may modulate PMN function in SLE...

..015 and 0.0002). The IL-1RN*2 allele was not associated with any difference in clinical disease expression. The IL-1RN*2 allele is a susceptibility marker for AS in the Indian population but does not influence disease phenotype...

..Data on their role in established RA is limited. We studied the association of various autoantibodies in RA with its severity...

..Quality of life is compromised in patients with RA. Patients and normal controls scored higher in the social relationship domain. Functional disability is the most important factor affecting QOL in RA...

..This finding may be attributed to use of Caucasian normative data, uncontrolled disease activity, severity of disease, poor nutritional status, or an ethnic variation...

..We studied prevalence and effects of FM in North Indian patients with RA and associations of RA with disease activity...

..We measured levels of several proinflammatory and immunoregulatory cytokines in SF and sera from patients with ReA/uSpA...

..In addition, ERA patients had lower MMP level as well as MMP/TIMP ratio as compared to poly JIA which may partly explain lesser degree of joint damage seen in ERA as compared to poly JIA...

..We investigated T cell phenotypes including Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg with emphasis on Th17 and Treg, in order to differentiate cytokines in the enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) form of JIA...

..Intramuscular gold and D-Penicillamine were associated with significant drug toxicity. Outcome of children with JRA in our country is poorer as compared to developed countries...

..We studied the association of CYP2C19 and CYP2B6 genetic polymorphism with ovarian toxicity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) treated with CYC...

..We compared the levels of these cytokines in stored platelet preparations prepared by two methods. Effect of pre-storage leucofiltration on these cytokine levels was also studied...

..623), and parent's global assessment (0.446), Almost two-thirds of patients with JIA had articular damage and one third had extra-articular damage. JADI is a good tool to measure damage in children with JIA...

..7. Our results for the first time show that SA extract can inhibit proinflammatory cytokine production and demonstrate its mechanism of action...

..To study the difference in the clinical presentation of patients of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) with and without peripheral arthritis...

..We studied the ability of bacterial and viral products to produce matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and cytokines by fibroblast like synoviocytes (FLS) from patients with JIA...

..Decreased sRAGE levels are associated with autoimmune diseases; however, limited data are available in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). We studied sRAGE levels in patients with JIA [enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) category]...

..There are sparse data on outcome of lupus nephritis from developing countries. This study looks at outcome in Asian Indians...

..We also look at specific scores or indices that can help predict the response in individual patients...

..We studied the relationship between the C677T gene polymorphism and toxicity and efficacy of MTX in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on folate supplementation...

..3%) were males with a mean age of 31.2 yr. No donor was found to have complete IgA deficiency; however, 257 (6.7%) had partial IgA deficiency. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION: Our study shows that IgA deficiency is rare in north India...

..We examined the prevalence and clinical association of the antiribosomal antibodies in our cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)...

..As, there is paucity of such data, we aimed to define the optimum screening dilution that distinguishes the patient with SLE from healthy individuals...

..5 times more numerous in the SF (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The cellular immune response in Salmonella ReA/uSpA is directed predominantly against the OMP and low molecular weight proteins in the cytosolic fraction...

..Our study suggests that MTX twice weekly has no advantage over once weekly regarding efficacy, and thus the currently used once weekly regimen is good enough till alternate dosing schedules are evaluated in a large multicentric trial...

..In patients with ReA the immune response is targeted at the outer membrane protein (OMP) of Salmonella typhimurium. We studied the immune response in JIA-ERA to S. typhimurium OMP...

..This is in accordance with the rarity of early onset pauciarticular disease and chronic uveitis in these patients. More studies from other parts of the country are required to validate this observation...

..There is an urgent need to increase awareness in primary care physicians, patients, and pharmacists toward informed prescribing, dispensing, and monitoring of MTX to prevent such mishaps in the future...

..Partial response to iron replacement suggests a component of ACD in these patients. Anemic patients with ACD had more active disease as compared with non-anemic patients or those with IDA...

..To study the prevalence of secondary amyloidosis in Indian patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS)...

..DSSc and LSSc in childhood have a clinical presentation similar to adult patients, with cardiopulmonary involvement being the major predictor of outcome. The short-term prognosis of JSSc is good...

..Further, our data suggest that patients with ERA have similar levels to other forms of JIA. Association of the MMP3/TIMP-1 ratio with disease activity suggests that it may be a useful biomarker for follow-up...

..82-0.94), BAS-G ICC 0.75 (0.58-0.86), and HAQ-S ICC 0.91 (0.84-0.95). The Hindi versions of the BASDAI, BASFI, BAS-G, and HAQ-S were found to be valid and reliable for use in Hindi-speaking Indian patients with ankylosing spondylitis...

..Thus, our data suggests that intracellular network of PI3K and mTOR pathway control IL-12/IL-10 modulation by L. donovani. mTOR inhibitors may be attractive molecules to reverse this modulation and may result in control of disease...

..We present a young man who developed eosinophilic fasciitis following severe gymnastic activity...

..However, only one-fourth of patients had evidence of clinical amyloidosis. A longer followup and a larger multicentric collaborative study is needed to determine the significance of subclinical amyloid deposits...

..We report a case of a 13-year-old boy who presented with recurrent episodes of knee joint swelling. Though the history and physical examination was typical, magnetic resonance imaging clinched the diagnosis...

..CONCLUSION: One-third of Indian RA patients had subclinical atherosclerosis. Age and tender joint count were independent predictors of abnormal CCA IMT...

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..Two patients each were treated with colchicine, D-penicillamine or hydroxy-chloroquine for 3-6 months without any response. We conclude that MIAN is a benign side effect of methotrexate treatment...

..PBMCs from healthy subjects were used as controls...

..IL-6 and IL-8 levels were higher in stimulated ERA SFMC compared to ERA PBMC and in ERA PBMC compared to control PBMC. TLRs 1, 3, and 6 were also overexpressed at the protein level...

..Microbes initiate immune responses through Toll-like receptors (TLRs). We studied TLR expression on blood and SF monocytes and the effect of TLR ligands on peripheral blood (PB) mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in ERA patients...

..Thus, the live birth rate in developing countries in SLE mothers is worse compared with developed countries. Active disease during pregnancy is significantly associated with increased foetal loss...

..CONCLUSION: The prevalence of primary Sjogren's syndrome is rare even in tertiary care rheumatology clinics. The clinical and immunological profile as seen here is similar to that reported in Western countries...

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..To study the prevalence and antigenic specificity of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)...

..Conclusion. S. typhimurium is probably one of the triggers for enteric ReA and uSpA in our cohort of patients, and the immune response is characterized by increased production of both IL-10 and IFN-g...

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..Cyclophosphamide in our case achieved partial remission without the need for plasma exchange therapy. The rationale of cyclophosphamide in management of relapsing TTP is discussed...

..Together, these findings establish the feasibility and power of TCGA, demonstrating that it can rapidly expand knowledge of the molecular basis of cancer...

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