Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Rheumatoid Vasculitis”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Granulomatous cutaneous rheumatoid vasculitis.

Rheumatoid vasculitis is a term that includes many vascular reactions from capillaritis to severe systemic necrotizing vasculitis occurring in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but generally has been used to describe an immune complex reaction. The presence of vasculitis in the patient with RA has often been associated with a poorer prognosis; however, the prognosis is dependent on the presence of systemic disease. We report a patient with RA in whom multiple purpuric, cutaneous nodules, diffuse interstitial fibrosis, and high levels of circulating immune complexes developed. The cutaneous disease was characterized by a granuloma formation secondary to leukocytoclastic vasculitis.

Aged↗

[The rheumatoid vasculitis and malignant rheumatoid arthritis(MRA)].

The inflammatory process characteristic of rheumatoid arthritis is typically targeted to the synovial membrane. In a subset of patients, rheumatoid disease is complicated by an inflammatory destruction of blood vessels, rheumatoid vasculitis. Rheumatoid vasculitis has been understood to be the result of severe disease extending beyond the joint, possibly caused by immune complex deposition. However, in Japan malignant rheumatoid arthritis(MRA) is designated as rheumatoid arthritis with vasculitis. Rheumatoid arthritis patients can be separated into two groups: individuals with synovial disease and individuals with synovial plus extra-articular disease, MRA. The model is supported by immunogenetic analysis describing an accumulation of vasculitis patients with rheumatoid arthritis among HLA-DRB10401 homozygotes. Therapy depends upon the clinical manifestation of rheumatoid vasculitis. Then, MRA is usually treated with steroid, and steroid pulse therapy and immunosuppressants are useful for severe MRA.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Cutaneous rheumatoid vasculitis.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a multisystem disease, with many clinical forms bearing close resemblance to systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis or polyarteritis nodosa. Although the involvement of the integument is not as disabiling as the joint disease, the extent of disability may be of sufficient magnitude to necessitate therapeutic intervention. Two patients are presented whose skin involvement was suggestive of cutaneous angiitis and who responded dramatically to treatment using sulfasalazine.

Adult↗

The mortality of rheumatoid vasculitis compared with rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the mortality of patients with rheumatoid vasculitis (RV) is increased in comparison with that of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: The mortality of all RV patients identified in 1980-1992 (n=61) was compared with that of 244 RA controls matched for the year the diagnosis was made in the RV cases. Hazard ratios (HR) of death were calculated with a multivariate survival analysis, adjusting for age, sex, comorbidity, treatment, and parameters of RA severity. RESULTS: The unadjusted risk of death (HR) in RV patients compared with RA controls was 1.65 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.05-2.58). After adjustment for prognostic factors, the HR was reduced to 1.26 (95% CI 0.79-2.01), mainly due to removal of the effects of age and sex. No excess mortality was seen in RV patients with severe organ involvement when compared with RV patients without severe organ involvement, although the former patients were treated more often with cytostatic and immunosuppressive drugs. Infection was the main cause of death in the RV patients, and cardiovascular disease in the RA controls. Vasculitis was reported as the cause of death in only 1 RV patient. CONCLUSION: After allowance for general risk factors such as age and sex, there remains only a slight excess mortality in RV patients compared with RA controls.

Adult↗

Multiple rheumatoid papules characteristic of the early stage of rheumatoid vasculitis.

The rheumatoid papule has recently been described as the skin manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The papules represent leukocytoclastic vasculitis and necrobiosis clinicopathologically. We report a 59-year-old Japanese woman with multiple recurrent rheumatoid papules located on the bilateral extensor forearms in correlation with the level of RA activity and as a cutaneous manifestation of rheumatoid vasculitis. These papules appeared prior to other cutaneous manifestations. It was suggested that rheumatoid papules represent the early stage of rheumatoid vasculitis and that they are a reliable early clinical marker of rheumatoid vasculitis.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Rheumatoid vasculitis in a patient with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis.

We report on a 47-year-old woman with a 10-year history of seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had experienced an episode of bilateral aseptic pleuritis, and in whom livedo reticularis and ulcers had developed on both lower extremities. Histological examination revealed rheumatoid vasculitis. In rheumatoid vasculitis, high titers of rheumatoid factors are commonly observed. In our case, however, there have been no characteristic laboratory findings throughout the course of the disease so far, despite the active RA. This report describes a rare case of seronegative RA with systemic rheumatoid vasculitis.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

IgA containing immune complexes in rheumatoid vasculitis and in active rheumatoid disease.

Serum and synovial fluid (SF) from 68 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were studied for the presence of immune complexes (IC) and the results correlated with extraarticular features and/or disease activity. IC were measured by the 125I Clq binding assay (ClqBA) and with one detecting IgG, IgA, C3 or C4 in IC. Disease activity correlated significantly with IgG or IgA containing and Clq binding IC. The IgA containing IC were found only in 25% of the patients, including all but one case of rheumatoid vasculitis, but otherwise only in seropositive active RA. C3 and C4 IC did not correlated with disease activity, seropositivity or vasculitis. IC in serum did not correlate with SF levels, but C4 containing IC were more frequent in SF (60%) than in serum (30%). Thus serum IC did not reflect SF levels. Patients with vasculitis showed more IC in the sera than in SF.

Adolescent↗

Intravenous cyclophosphamide plus methylprednisolone in treatment of systemic rheumatoid vasculitis.

Systemic vasculitis in rheumatoid arthritis shows similarities to polyarteritis nodosa and may require equally aggressive therapy. Forty-five patients with systemic rheumatoid vasculitis were studied during treatment with either cyclophosphamide plus methylprednisolone given by intermittent bolus intravenous injection (21 patients) or a variety of other more conventional drug regimens (24 patients). In this open study, the intravenous treatment group had more severe initial disease, a higher incidence of neuropathy, and more frequent evidence of necrotizing arteritis on biopsy than the other treatment group. Despite this, intravenous cyclophosphamide plus methylprednisolone resulted in more frequent healing of vasculitic lesions including leg ulcers and neuropathy, a lower incidence of relapse, fewer serious complications, and a lower mortality than did other treatments. Toxic effects were similar in both study groups. Intravenous cyclophosphamide plus methylprednisolone is a useful early treatment for systemic rheumatoid vasculitis.

Adult↗

Rheumatoid vasculitis: diagnostic and therapeutic decisions.

Rheumatoid vasculitis is an uncommon but potentially catastrophic complication of RA. There are few extensive experiences recorded in the current literature and there is no consensus regarding the clinical features, laboratory findings, histologic pattern, prognosis, or appropriate management of this syndrome. We therefore surveyed 1,947 North American ARA members for their perceptions of rheumatoid vasculitis. Four hundred twenty-eight surveys were returned, of which 290 were suitable for analysis. The majority of respondents were within 10 years of fellowships and were evenly distributed among private practice, and part-time and full-time academic positions. The respondents saw 15-50 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients weekly and less than five RA vasculitis patients annually. The majority correctly diagnosed two actual and complex case histories from patients with and without autopsy-proven vasculitis. Respondents associated the following features most strongly with rheumatoid vasculitis - mononeuritis multiplex, digital gangrene, digital ischemic lesions, nailfold ischemic lesions, non-healing leg ulcers, palpable purpura, fingertip nodules, sensory neuropathy, scleromalacia perforans, high titer rheumatoid factor, positive visceral angiography, cryoglobulinemia, hypocomplementemia, circulating immune complexes, and histologic necrotizing vasculitis or vascular transmural neutrophilia. Digital lesions or sensory neuropathy alone were not viewed as portending an ominous prognosis by most respondents and would have been treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antimalarials, gold salts, or D-penicillamine. Other clinical manifestations considered as reflecting rheumatoid vasculitis (gangrene, mononeuritis multiplex, ulcers) were thought to worsen prognosis and would have been managed more often with corticosteroids, D-penicillamine, cytotoxic agents or plasmapheresis. Rheumatoid vasculitis is viewed as a heterogeneous group of syndromes with varying clinical and histopathologic features,which have different prognostic implications, and therefore should be managed differently. While these dta do not substitute for an extensive recorded series of patients, they provide useful information about community perceptions of an uncommon but difficult clinical problem. They identify the need for additional data to examine the validity of these attitudes.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Rheumatoid vasculitis manifesting as intra-abdominal hemorrhage.

Rheumatoid vasculitis, an extra-articular component of rheumatoid arthritis, causes a wide spectrum of manifestations that range from clinically insignificant to life-threatening disease. As a systemic necrotizing arteritis, rheumatoid vasculitis is usually characterized by end-organ ischemia. Herein we describe a patient with abdominal pain and syncope due to intra-abdominal hemorrhage from a ruptured aneurysm of the inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery in the setting of rheumatoid vasculitis. Although the intra-abdominal hemorrhage was the unusual manifestation of rheumatoid vasculitis in this patient, he had a history of prior extra-articular rheumatoid disease, including pulmonary fibrosis and Sjögren's syndrome with associated parotid lymphoproliferative disease. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have abdominal pain and an unexplained rapidly decreasing hemoglobin concentration, the diagnosis of intra-abdominal hemorrhage from a ruptured visceral aneurysm due to rheumatoid vasculitis should be considered, even in the absence of other indications of systemic vasculitis.

Abdominal Pain↗

[Detection of intracranial lesions of rheumatoid vasculitis with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)].

Vasculitis in malignant courses of rheumatoid arthritis is found in many systems, but rarely in the central nervous system. It has been reported that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is capable of depicting minute infarctions and/or lesions of demyelination more clearly than does X-ray computed tomography (CT). In the present study, we compared MRI and/or CT of the brain in 3 cases with rheumatoid vasculitis to gauge their relative usefulness for detecting cerebrovascular damages in such patients. In one case with focal neurological symptoms (case 1), MRI depicted lesions responsible for the symptoms more clearly than did CT. In the other two cases (cases 2 and 3), which had no neurological nor psychiatric symptoms, MRI detected multiple microinfarcts in each brain; CT revealed no such lesions. These results indicate that MRI may be more useful than CT to detect brain lesions in patients with rheumatoid vasculitis, and that patients with rheumatoid vasculitis who show no CNS symptoms may in fact still have cerebrovascular lesions. Further studies with MRI in more patients with rheumatoid vasculitis should establish the incidence of cerebrovascular involvement such patients; it is probably much higher than has been previously reported.

Aged↗

[Diagnostic and prognostic significance of so-called rheumatoid vasculitis].

23 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and high rheumatic factors (mean titres of rheumatic factors 1 : 1 434) within a prospective study on the diagnostic and prognostic significance of the rheumatoid vasculitis which was performed together with the Research Institute for Rheumatism Moscow underwent examinations for the proof of an extraarticular organ manifestation. In correspondence with the data in literature we found rheumatic nodes (70%) as most frequent extraarticular organ manifestation. In 1 patient each a participation of the lungs and a rheumatic exudate of the pleura, respectively, could be diagnosed. In another patient there were references to a vasculitis at the fundus of the eye. In only 2 patients there was a vasculitis of the digital arteries with necroses, in one of them a generalized vasculitis. 5 of the 13 neurologically examined patients showed polyneuropathic symptoms. Of the biochemical findings the C-reactive protein and the blood sedimentation rate showed clear increases and correlations.

Adolescent↗

Rheumatoid vasculitis: experience with 13 patients and review of the literature.

Rheumatoid vasculitis is an uncommon but potentially catastrophic complication of RA. There are few current extensive experiences and no consensus regarding the clinical, laboratory, histologic features, and management or prognosis of rheumatoid vasculitis. We therefore reviewed selected observations in 13 patients followed over the past decade and compared them with patients reported and with results of a survey of North American Rheumatologists. Our patients were seven men and six women (age, 33 to 70 years) who had had active RA for 4 to 36 years. They exhibited sensory neuropathy, mononeuritis multiplex, Felty syndrome, cutaneous lesions, leg ulcers, gangrene, anemia, leukocytosis, eosinophilia, high titers of RF, hypocomplementemia, and CICs or cryoglobulinemia approximately as frequently as other reported patients with rheumatoid vasculitis, but they displayed constitutional symptoms, subcutaneous nodules, ischemic changes, and proteinuria rather less consistently than in other series. These observations were not necessarily as expected by survey respondents. We, as in other series and suggested by survey respondents, tended to select penicillamine or cytotoxic drugs (or plasmapheresis) for patients with mononeuritis, gangrene, or leg ulcers, and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, antimalarials, gold, or penicillamine for sensory neuropathy or digital lesions. Four patients died, two deteriorated, and seven were stable or improved, a finding that was also similar to the experiences of others. Rheumatoid vasculitis is an uncommon, potentially catastrophic syndrome with varying clinico-pathologic features that have different prognostic implications and should be managed individually.

Adult↗

ICAM-1, E-selectin, and TNF alpha expression in labial salivary glands of patients with rheumatoid vasculitis.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the expression of ICAM1, VCAM1, E-selectin, CD44, and TNF alpha in labial salivary glands of patients with rheumatoid vasculitis. METHODS: Labial salivary glands from six patients with rheumatoid vasculitis before and after treatment, six aged matched rheumatoid arthritis patients without clinical evidence of rheumatoid vasculitis, 10 patients with primary Sjögren syndrome, 10 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and proven secondary Sjögren syndrome, and six controls were tested with specific antibodies. RESULTS: ICAM1, E-selectin, and TNF alpha were significantly expressed in endothelial cells and perivascular cellular infiltrate only in rheumatoid vasculitis before treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The expression of ICAM1, E-selectin, and TNF alpha allows an assessment of the activity of the vasculitic process in rheumatoid vasculitis. Labial salivary gland biopsy findings in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and visceral vasculitis without purpura or neuropathy (that is, mesenteric, coronary, or cerebral vasculitis) would be of interest and are examples where labial salivary gland tissue is more accessible than the affected tissue.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Particular HLA-DRB1 shared epitope genotypes are strongly associated with rheumatoid vasculitis.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of the HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) to rheumatoid vasculitis, using individual patient data (IPD) meta-analytic methods. METHODS: Published studies that enrolled adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were identified by searches of Medline and Embase, and by manual searches of medical journals. All authors were contacted for IPD. Meta-analyses were performed to assess the association of SE presence, dose, and genotype with rheumatoid vasculitis. RESULTS: A total of 14 studies and 1,568 patients (129 with vasculitis) were included in the analysis. RA patients with vasculitis were significantly more likely to have rheumatoid nodules (odds ratio [OR] 2.5, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.5-3.9], but there was no significant association with male sex, rheumatoid factor positivity, or erosive disease. No significant association was observed between the presence of the SE (i.e., 1 or 2 alleles versus 0 alleles) and rheumatoid vasculitis (summary OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.7-2.7). Analysis by SE genotype, however, demonstrated a striking relationship of vasculitis to 3 genotypes containing a double dose of the SE, specifically HLA-DRB1*0401/*0401 (OR 6.2, 95% CI 1.01-37.9), *0401/*0404 (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.1-16.2), and *0101/*0401 (OR 4.0, 95% CI 1.4-11.6). CONCLUSION: The HLA-DRB1 SE genotypes *0401/*0401, *0401/*0404, and *0101/*0401 may be of particular importance to rheumatoid vasculitis. It is hoped that additional investigation of these and other SE genotypes will lead to improved insight into the mechanisms influencing the clinical expression of RA.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Platelet releasing activity in sera of patients with rheumatoid vasculitis.

Platelet releasing activity was found in sera fractionated by 30% ammonium sulphate in seven of 11 patients with systemic rheumatoid vasculitis, two of 16 patients with cutaneous rheumatoid vasculitis, and three of 18 patients with clinically uncomplicated rheumatoid arthritis. Serial studies in three patients suggest a key role of platelet activation by serum factors in the pathogenesis of systemic rheumatoid vasculitis. IgG rheumatoid factor or IgG containing immune complexes, or both, may be responsible for this platelet releasing activity.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid↗

Rheumatoid vasculitis: survival and associated risk factors.

We describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 52 patients with rheumatoid vasculitis whose condition was diagnosed at a tertiary care center between 1974 and 1981, and we report their survival and the factors that were associated with decreased survival. The patients with rheumatoid vasculitis had decreased survival in comparison with an age-, sex-, and region-matched general population. Their survival was also decreased in comparison to that of an incidence cohort of community patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In the latter cohort, decreased survival was confined to those patients with classic but not definite rheumatoid arthritis. After partial correction for referral bias, we found no difference in survival between the cohort with rheumatoid vasculitis and the cohort with classic rheumatoid arthritis. We found that the age at diagnosis of rheumatoid vasculitis, the therapeutic decisions before and at diagnosis, and the referral distance were the best predictors of survival. Abnormal urinary sediment and hypergammaglobulinemia also predicted poor survival, but because of a lack of specificity in a small number of clinically abnormal values, we urge a cautious interpretation of their importance.

Adult↗