BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

High IgA rheumatoid factor levels are associated with poor clinical response to tumour necrosis factor α inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether rheumatoid factor isotypes and anti‐cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti‐CCP) antibodies are related to clinical response in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) inhibitors. METHODS: The study was carried out on 132 patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis refractory to disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs. Patients were treated with infliximab (n = 63), etanercept (n = 35) or adalimumab (n = 34). All patients completed 1 year of follow‐up, and 126 were evaluable for clinical response according to the disease activity score (DAS) criteria. IgM, IgA and IgG rheumatoid factors and anti‐CCP antibodies were assessed by ELISA both before anti‐TNFα treatment and 1 year later. RESULTS: The DAS response was reached in 66% of evaluable patients (61% infliximab, 65% etanercept and 76% adalimumab; p = 0.354). A significant reduction in the rheumatoid factor level was reported by all treatment groups after 1 year. The frequency of positive tests for the different antibodies did not differ between responders and non‐responders at baseline; however, significantly higher IgA rheumatoid factor levels were reported by the non‐responder group (130.4 U/ml (interquartile range 13.8–276.7) v 24.8 U/ml (10.2–90.8); p = 0.003). A significant decrease (p<0.001) in the levels of all rheumatoid factor isotypes in the responder group was reported after 1 year of treatment, whereas anti‐CCP antibody levels were not significantly affected. CONCLUSIONS: According to the clinical response, anti‐TNFα agents seem to reduce IgM, IgG and IgA rheumatoid factor levels. More interestingly, high pretreatment levels of IgA rheumatoid factor are associated with a poor clinical response to TNFα inhibitors

Joining telehealth in rheumatology: a survey on the role played by personalized experience from patients’ perspective

Abstract Background The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many hospital departments worldwide to implement telehealth strategies for the first time. Telehealth represents the opportunity to increase value for all stakeholders, including patients and healthcare staff, but its success constitutes a challenge for all of them and particularly patients play a crucial role for their needed adherence. This study focuses on the experience of the Rheumatology Unit of Niguarda Hospital in Milan (Italy), where telehealth projects have been implemented for more than a decade with structured design and organized processes. The case study is paradigmatic because patients have experimented personalized mixes of telehealth channels, including e-mails and phone calls, Patient Reported Outcomes questionnaires, and home delivery of drugs. Given all these peculiarities, we decided to deepen patients’ perspective through three main aspects related to the adoption of telehealth: (i) the benefits perceived, (ii) the willingness to enrol in future projects, (iii) the preference on the service-mix between remote contacts and in-person visits. Most importantly, we investigated differences in the three areas among all patients based on the mix of telehealth channels experienced. Methods We conducted a survey from November 2021 to January 2022, enrolling consecutively patients attending the Rheumatology Unit of Niguarda Hospital in Milan (Italy). Our survey comprised an introductory set of questions related to personal, social, clinical and ICT skills information, followed by the central part on telehealth. All the answers were analysed with descriptive statistics and regression models. Results A complete response was given by 400 patients: 283 (71%) were female, 237 (59%) were 40–64 years old, 213 (53%) of them declared to work, and the disease most represented was Rheumatoid Arthritis (144 patients, 36%). Descriptive statistics and regression results revealed that (i) non-users imagined wide-ranging benefits compared to users; (ii) other things being equal, having had a more intense experience of telehealth increased the odds of accepting to participate to future projects by 3.1 times (95% C.I. 1.04–9.25), compared to non-users; (iii) the more telehealth was experienced, the higher the willingness to substitute in-person with online contacts. Conclusions Our study contributes to enlighten the crucial role played by the telehealth experience in determining patients’ preferences

Impaired bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cell function in rheumatoid arthritis patients candidated to autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

We have evaluated bone marrow morphology, percentage of bone marrow CD34(+) cells, proliferative activity of bone marrow precursors, clonogenic assay ( BFU- E and CFU- GM) in short- term bone marrow cultures, and bone marrow cell apoptosis, together with serum TNF-alpha and IL- 6, in 16 chronic, refractory RA patients, as well as in five healthy controls. Of 16 RA patients ( 68.7%), 11 showed a reduced bone marrow cellularity, while it was normal in all the controls. In RA patients, the median percentage of CD34(+) bone marrow cells, the median percentage of proliferating bone marrow myeloid precursors, and the median number of both BFU- E and CFU-GM colonies were significantly lower than observed in the controls. As far as TNF-alpha and IL- 6 titers is concerned, the latter did not significantly differ from controls' values, while TNF-alpha titers were significantly lower in healthy controls. Finally, the median apoptotic index of early bone marrow myeloid cells of RA patients was significantly higher compared with controls. These observations may identify the biological risk factors for impaired mobilization and/ or engraftment when RA patients are candidates for autologous hematopoietic stem cell grafting

Effects of Environmental Factors on Severity and Mortality of COVID-19

Background: Most respiratory viruses show pronounced seasonality, but for SARS-CoV-2, this still needs to be documented. Methods: We examined the disease progression of COVID-19 in 6,914 patients admitted to hospitals in Europe and China. In addition, we evaluated progress of disease symptoms in 37,187 individuals reporting symptoms into the COVID Symptom Study application. Findings: Meta-analysis of the mortality risk in seven European hospitals estimated odds ratios per 1-day increase in the admission date to be 0.981 (0.973-0.988, p <0.001) and per increase in ambient temperature of 1 degrees C to be 0.854 (0.773-0.944, p = 0.007). Statistically significant decreases of comparable magnitude in median hospital stay, probability of transfer to the intensive care unit, and need for mechanical ventilation were also observed in most, but not all hospitals. The analysis of individually reported symptoms of 37,187 individuals in the UK also showed the decrease in symptom duration and disease severity with time. Interpretation: Severity of COVID-19 in Europe decreased significantly between March and May and the seasonality of COVID-19 is the most likely explanation.Peer reviewe

Prise en charge de l'infection par le virus de l'hépatite B chez les patients atteints de polyarthrite rhumatoïde: conférence de consensus italienne

No abstract availabl

Italian consensus guidelines for the management of hepatitis B virus infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

No abstract availabl

Prise en charge de l’infection par le virus de l’hépatite B chez les patients atteints de polyarthrite rhumatoïde : conférence de consensus italienne

none33openSebastiani, Marco*; Atzeni, Fabiola; Milazzo, Laura; Quartuccio, Luca; Scirè, Carlo; Gaeta, Giovanni Battista; Lapadula, Giovanni; Armignacco, Orlando; Tavio, Marcello; Olivieri, Ignazio; Meroni, Pierluigi; Bazzichi, Laura; Grassi, Walter; Mathieu, Alessandro; Mastroianni, Claudio; Sagnelli, Evangelista; Santantonio, Teresa; Uberti Foppa, Caterina; Puoti, Massimo; Sarmati, Loredana; Airò, Paolo; Epis, Oscar Massimiliano; Scrivo, Rossana; Gargiulo, Miriam; Riva, Agostino; Manfredi, Andreina; Ciancio, Giovanni; Zehender, Gianguglielmo; Taliani, Gloria; Meroni, Luca; Sollima, Salvatore; Sarzi-Puttini, Piercarlo; Galli, MassimoSebastiani, Marco; Atzeni, Fabiola; Milazzo, Laura; Quartuccio, Luca; Scirè, Carlo; Gaeta, Giovanni Battista; Lapadula, Giovanni; Armignacco, Orlando; Tavio, Marcello; Olivieri, Ignazio; Meroni, Pierluigi; Bazzichi, Laura; Grassi, Walter; Mathieu, Alessandro; Mastroianni, Claudio; Sagnelli, Evangelista; Santantonio, Teresa; Uberti Foppa, Caterina; Puoti, Massimo; Sarmati, Loredana; Airò, Paolo; Epis, Oscar Massimiliano; Scrivo, Rossana; Gargiulo, Miriam; Riva, Agostino; Manfredi, Andreina; Ciancio, Giovanni; Zehender, Gianguglielmo; Taliani, Gloria; Meroni, Luca; Sollima, Salvatore; Sarzi-Puttini, Piercarlo; Galli, Massim