The Expanded Risk Score in Rheumatoid Arthritis: performance of a disease-specific calculator in comparison with the traditional prediction scores in the assessment of the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

The increased risk of cardiovascular disease has emerged as a major issue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis – it has been estimated that the cardiovascular disease burden in rheumatoid arthritis is comparable to that of diabetes mellitus

Sensitivity of three commercial tests for SARS-CoV-2 serology in children: an Italian multicentre prospective study

US Food and Drug Administration has issued Emergency Use Authorizations for hundreds of serological assays to support Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate, for the first time in children, the performance of three widely utilized SARS-CoV-2 serology commercial assays, Diesse Diagnostics (IgG, IgA, IgM) and Roche Diagnostics, both Roche Nucleocapsid (N) IgG and Roche Spike (S) IgG assays. Methods: Sensitivity and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for each of the three different serological tests and mixed and direct comparison were performed. Univariate and multivariate Poisson regression models were fitted to calculate incidence rate ratios and 95% CIs as estimate of the effects of age, gender, time on the serology title. A p-value < 0.05 indicated statistical significance. Results: Overall, 149 children were enrolled in the study. A low sensitivity was found for Diesse IgA, IgM and IgG. Compare to Diesse, Roche S had a higher sensitivity at 15-28 days from infection (0.94, 95%CI: 0.73-1.0) and Roche N at 28-84 days (0.78, 95%CI: 0.58-0.91). When a direct comparison of IgG tests sensitivity was feasible for patients with pairwise information, Roche S and Roche N showed a statistically significant higher sensitivity compared to Diesse in all the study periods, whereas there was no difference between the two Roche tests. Conclusion: Roche S and Roche N serology tests seem to better perform in children. Large prospective studies are needed to better define the characteristics of those tests

AdS/QCD: The Relevance of the Geometry

We investigate the relevance of the metric and of the geometry in five-dimensional models of hadrons. Generically, the metric does not affect strongly the results and even flat space agrees reasonably well with the data. Nevertheless, we observe a preference for a decreasing warp factor, for example AdS space. The Sakai-Sugimoto model reduces to one of these models and the level of agreement is similar to the one of flat space. We also consider the discrete version of the five-dimensional models, obtained by dimensional deconstruction. We find that essentially all the relevant features of "holographic" models of QCD can be reproduced with a simple 3-site model describing only the states below the cut-off of the theory.Comment: 25 pages + appendix. v2 minor changes and Refs. adde

Adalimumab and ABP 501 in the Treatment of a Large Cohort of Patients with Inflammatory Arthritis: A Real Life Retrospective Analysis

The recent introduction of ABP 501, an adalimumab biosimilar, in the treatment of rheumatic diseases was supported by a comprehensive comparability exercise with its originator. On the other hand, observational studies comparing adalimumab and ABP 501 in inflammatory arthritis are still lacking. The main aim of this study is to compare the clinical outcomes of the treatment with adalimumab, both the originator and ABP 501, in a large cohort of patients affected by autoimmune arthritis in a real life setting. We retrospectively analysed the baseline characteristics and the retention rate in a cohort of patients who received at least a course of adalimumab (originator or ABP 501) from January 2003 to December 2020. We stratified the study population according to adalimumab use: naive to original (oADA), naive to ABP 501 (bADA) and switched from original to ABP 501 (sADA). The oADA, bADA and sADA groups included, respectively, 724, 129 and 193 patients. In each group, the majority of patients had a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The total observation period was 9805.6 patient-months. The 18-month retentions rate in oADA, bADA and sADA was, respectively, 81.5%, 84.0% and 88.0% (p > 0.05). The factors influencing the adalimumab retention rate were an axial spondylarthritis diagnosis (Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.70; p = 0.04), switch from oADA to ABP 501 (HR 0.53; p = 0.02) and year of prescription (HR 1.04; p = 0.04). In this retrospective study, patients naive to the adalimumab originator and its biosimilar ABP 501 showed the same retention rate. Patients switching from the originator to biosimilar had a higher retention rate, even though not statistically significant, when compared to naive

Predictors of DAPSA Response in Psoriatic Arthritis Patients Treated with Apremilast in a Retrospective Observational Multi-Centric Study (2023-02-07)

Background: To date, only a few real-world-setting studies evaluated apremilast effectiveness in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The aims of this retrospective observational study are to report long-term Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA) response of apremilast in PsA patients and to analyze the predictors of clinical response. Methods: All PsA consecutive patients treated with apremilast in fifteen Italian rheumatological referral centers were enrolled. Anamnestic data, treatment history, and PsA disease activity (DAPSA) at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months were recorded. The Mann–Whitney test and chi-squared tests assessed the differences between independent groups, whereas the Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test assessed the differences between dependent samples. Logistic regressions verified if there were factors associated with achievement of DAPSA low disease activity or remission at 6 and 12 months. Results: DAPSA low disease activity or remission rates at 6 and 12 months were observed, respectively, in 42.7% (n = 125) and 54.9% (n = 161) patients. Baseline DAPSA was inversely associated with the odds of achieving low disease activity or remission at 6 months (odds ratio (OR) 0.841, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.804–0.879; p < 0.01) and at 12 months (OR 0.911, 95% CI 0.883–0.939; p < 0.01). Conclusions: Almost half of the PsA patients receiving apremilast achieved DAPSA low disease activity or remission at 6 and 12 months. The only factor associated with achievement of low disease activity or remission at both 6 and 12 months was baseline DAPSA

The 4D Composite Higgs

We propose a four dimensional description of Composite Higgs Models which represents a complete framework for the physics of the Higgs as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. Our setup captures all the relevant features of 5D models and more in general of composite Higgs models with partial compositeness. We focus on the minimal scenario where we include a single multiplet of resonances of the composite sector, as these will be the only degrees of freedom which might be accessible at the LHC. This turns out to be sufficient to compute the effective potential and derive phenomenological consequences of the theory. Moreover our simplified approach is well adapted to simulate these models at the LHC. We also consider the impact of non-minimal terms in the effective lagrangian which do not descend from a 5D theory and could be of phenomenological relevance, for example contributing to the S-parameter.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. v2) minor changes, references added, to appear in JHE

The Discrete Composite Higgs Model

We describe a concrete, predictive incarnation of the general paradigm of a composite Higgs boson, which provides a valid alternative to the standard holographic models in five space-time dimensions. Differently from the latter, our model is four-dimensional and simple enough to be implemented in an event generator for collider studies. The model is inspired by dimensional deconstruction and hence it retains useful features of the five-dimensional scenario, in particular, the Higgs potential is finite and calculable. Therefore our setup, in spite of being simple, provides a complete description of the composite Higgs physics. After constructing the model we present a first analysis of its phenomenology, focusing on the structure of the Higgs potential, on the constraints from the EWPT and on the spectrum of the new particles.Comment: 42 pages, 10 figures; v2: minor changes and references added; v3: version published in JHE

Reliability assessment of ultrasound muscle echogenicity in patients with rheumatic diseases: Results of a multicenter international web-based study

ObjectivesTo investigate the inter/intra-reliability of ultrasound (US) muscle echogenicity in patients with rheumatic diseases.MethodsForty-two rheumatologists and 2 radiologists from 13 countries were asked to assess US muscle echogenicity of quadriceps muscle in 80 static images and 20 clips from 64 patients with different rheumatic diseases and 8 healthy subjects. Two visual scales were evaluated, a visual semi-quantitative scale (0–3) and a continuous quantitative measurement (“VAS echogenicity,” 0–100). The same assessment was repeated to calculate intra-observer reliability. US muscle echogenicity was also calculated by an independent research assistant using a software for the analysis of scientific images (ImageJ). Inter and intra reliabilities were assessed by means of prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted Kappa (PABAK), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and correlations through Kendall’s Tau and Pearson’s Rho coefficients.ResultsThe semi-quantitative scale showed a moderate inter-reliability [PABAK = 0.58 (0.57–0.59)] and a substantial intra-reliability [PABAK = 0.71 (0.68–0.73)]. The lowest inter and intra-reliability results were obtained for the intermediate grades (i.e., grade 1 and 2) of the semi-quantitative scale. “VAS echogenicity” showed a high reliability both in the inter-observer [ICC = 0.80 (0.75–0.85)] and intra-observer [ICC = 0.88 (0.88–0.89)] evaluations. A substantial association was found between the participants assessment of the semi-quantitative scale and “VAS echogenicity” [ICC = 0.52 (0.50–0.54)]. The correlation between these two visual scales and ImageJ analysis was high (tau = 0.76 and rho = 0.89, respectively).ConclusionThe results of this large, multicenter study highlighted the overall good inter and intra-reliability of the US assessment of muscle echogenicity in patients with different rheumatic diseases