Corticosteroid injections for common soft tissue rheumatism

Soft tissue injuries are probably the most commonly encountered rheumatic complaints and yet they are often overlooked. The diagnosis of most of these lesions relies on the physician's clinical acumen and a thorough understanding of the anatomy and function of the soft tissue involved is essential. A lot can be done to improve the patient's symptomatology once the diagnosis is made. Intralesional injection of corticosteroids is an effective form of treatment but care should be taken in the choice and dose of the steroid preparation used, the site of the injection and the monitoring of the patient's condition post-injection. In this article, the diagnosis and techniques of intralesional steroid injection of common soft tissue injuries are described.published_or_final_versio

Drug therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is such a debilitating illness that much effort has been made to find the ideal therapeutic regimen that has a high efficacy but low toxicity rate. Although such regimen has not been found yet, judicious use of what are currently available can improve the outcome of many of our patients.published_or_final_versio

Intestinal pseudoobstruction is an uncommon but important clinical manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

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Intermittent monthly intravenous infusion of iloprost may improve the prognosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated severe pulmonary hypertension (PHT)

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Effects of CD8+CD28- T suppressor lymphocyte (Ts) on B- and T- lymphocyte function in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

Conference Theme: Challenges to specialists in the 21st centurypublished_or_final_versio

Cognitive function in systemic lupus erythematosus patients with a history of neuropsychiatric manifestations: a longitudinal study

Poster PresentationBACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is commonly reported in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and its associations with neuropsychiatric involvement (NPSLE) and psychiatric factors have been inconsistently reported in the literature. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate full neurocognitive function in relation to psychiatric factors including anxiety and depression in NPSLE patients longitudinally compared to …published_or_final_versio

Ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk in rheumatic disease: Focus on Asians

Rheumatic diseases are associated with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Considerable differences exist in the frequency of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and events among people of different ethnic origins, but little is known of the ethnic variations in the relative distribution of CVD risk factors and the degree of atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatic diseases. Understanding this variation will provide insight into the underlying pathogenesis of CVD in patients with rheumatic diseases, and aid in future studies of the detection and management of this complication. In general, although Asian patients seem to have fewer background CVD risk factors and are less affected by metabolic syndrome (MetS) than their non-Asian counterparts, those with rheumatic disease are equally as susceptible to CVD. Furthermore, it seems that systemic inflammation and mechanisms that do not involve conventional CVD risk factors and MetS have an important role in the development of atherosclerosis in patients with rheumatic diseases. Here we examine the frequency of conventional CVD risk factors and the prevalence of MetS in both Asian and non-Asian patients with selected rheumatic diseases. We also discuss the burden of CVD, as evaluated using various surrogate markers in these patients, and their overall CVD mortality rate. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.postprin

Outcome measures of chronic arthritis in Hong Kong: comparison of the AIMS2 (Chinese) and WHO quality of life - brief form (WHOQOL-BREF) (HK)

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Detection of anti-ENA antibodies (Ab) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE): advantages of supplementing countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis with Western blotting (WB)

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Changes in nasopharyngeal carriage and serotype distribution of antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae before and after the introduction of 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in Hong Kong

This study assessed the changes in serotype distribution and antibiotic resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates in children before and after introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in Hong Kong. Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from 1978 and 2211 children (ages, 2 to 6 years) attending day care centers or kindergartens in period 1 (1999-2000) and period 2 (2009-2010), respectively. Carriage of PCV7 serotypes decreased from 12.8% to 8.6% (P < 0.01). The relative contribution of PCV7 serotypes 14 and 18C had decreased, whereas that for non-PCV7 serotypes 19A, 6A, 6C, 23A, and 15B had increased. In period 2, PCV7 penetration rate (at least 1 dose) for children aged 2, 3, 4, and 5 years was 43%, 35.7%, 26.7%, and 20.4%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, PCV7 use was the only independent variable associated with fewer PCV7 serotype carriages (odds ratio 0.5; P = 0.001). In period 2, high rates of dual penicillin/erythromycin nonsusceptibility were found in serotypes 6B (77.3%), 14 (100%), 19F (100%), 23F (78%), 19A (75%), 6A (87.8%), 6C (59.3%), and 23A (78.9%).postprin