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Background: Several studies have compared the clinical features and outcomes of late- and early-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. However, these previous studies were uncontrolled. The current study aimed to compare late- and early-onset SLE patients while controlling for sex and year at diagnosis (± 1 year)., Methods: The medical records of SLE patients in a lupus cohort from January 1994 to June 2020 were reviewed. Late-onset patients were identified as those with an age at diagnosis ≥ 50 years. The early-onset patients (age at diagnosis < 50 years) were matched by sex and year at diagnosis with the late-onset patients at a ratio of 2:1. Clinical manifestations, disease activity (mSLEDAI-2K), organ damage scores, treatment, and mortality were compared between the two groups., Results: The study comprised 62 and 124 late- and early-onset patients, respectively, with a mean follow-up duration of 5 years. At disease onset, when comparing the early-onset patients with the late-onset patients, the latter group had a higher prevalence rate of serositis (37.0% vs. 14.5%, p < 0.001) and hemolytic anemia (50.0% vs. 33.9%, p = 0.034) but lower prevalence rate of malar rash (14.5% vs. 37.1%, p = 0.001), arthritis (41.9% vs. 62.1%, p = 0.009), leukopenia (32.3% vs. 50.0%, p = 0.022) and lymphopenia (50.0% vs. 66.1%, p = 0.034). The groups had similar SLE disease activity (7.41 vs. 7.50), but the late-onset group had higher organ damage scores (0.37 vs. 0.02, p < 0.001). The rates of treatment with corticosteroids, antimalarial drugs, or immunosuppressive drugs were not different. At their last visit, the late-onset patients still had the same pattern of clinically significant differences except for arthritis; additionally, the late-onset group had a lower rate of nephritis (53.2% vs. 74.2%, p = 0.008). They also had a lower level of disease activity (0.41 vs. 0.57, p = 0.006) and received fewer antimalarials (67.7% vs. 85.5%, p = 0.023) and immunosuppressive drugs (61.3% vs. 78.2%, p = 0.044), but they had higher organ damage scores (1.37 vs. 0.47, p < 0.001) and higher mortality rates/100-person year (3.2 vs. 1.1, p = 0.015). After adjusting for disease duration and baseline clinical variables, the late-onset patients only had lower rate of nephritis (p = 0.002), but still received fewer immunosuppressive drugs (p = 0.005) and had a higher mortality rate (p = 0.037)., Conclusions: In this sex- and year at diagnosis-matched controlled study, after adjusting for disease duration and baseline clinical variables, the late-onset SLE patients had less renal involvement and received less aggressive treatment, but had a higher mortality rate than the early-onset patients., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Aim: Data regarding the clinical and radiographic hand involvement in Asian patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) are limited. Thus, we determined the prevalence of clinical and radiographic hand involvement in Thai SSc patients, comparing diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc). We also determined the factors associated with arthritis, contracture of fingers and digital ulcers., Method: SSc patients seen at the Rheumatology Clinic, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, from December 2012 to June 2013 were consecutively invited to enroll in the study. After study entry, demographic data, clinical features and hand radiographs were evaluated., Result: We studied 110 SSc patients (73 dcSSc) with mean ± SD age of 53.2 ± 9.2 years and disease duration from non-Raynaud's phenomenon of 4.9 ± 4.8 years. The prevalence of arthritis, finger contractures and digital ulcers were 10 (9.1%), 47 (42.7%), and 14 (12.7%), respectively. DcSSc patients had significantly more of the following hand complications than lcSSc patients: digital pitting scar (53.4% vs. 27.0%, P = 0.008), digital ulcer (17.8% vs. 2.7%, P = 0.032), traumatic ulcer (27.4% vs. 0%, P < 0.001), acrolysis (45.2% vs. 18.9%, P = 0.007) and flexion contracture (60.3% vs. 8.1%, P < 0.001). Radiographic finger contractures were more prevalent in the dcSSc subset. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, a positive rheumatoid factor was associated with arthritis; dcSSc, arthritis and modified Rodnan skin score (MRSS) > 18 were associated with contracture of fingers. Furthermore, hand MRSS > 4 was associated with digital ulcers., Conclusion: Our results confirm that dcSSc patients had more severe clinical hand complications than lcSSc. However, radiographic findings were similar among subgroups, except that more finger contractures were seen in dcSSc. Finally, the presence of rheumatoid factor is associated with arthritis, and high MRSS is associated with finger contractures and digital ulcers., (© 2016 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: The urate levels and the correlations of urate levels between the serum and synovial fluid (SF) of many arthritic diseases have not been well described., Objective: Compare urate levels in the serum and SF of gouty arthritis, calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease (CPPD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), septic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and osteoarthritis (OA) patients., Material and Method: Paired samples of serum and SF from 95 patients comprised of 33 patients with gout, 22 with CPPD, 18 with RA, nine with septic arthritis, three with AS, and 10 with OA were collected simultaneously for urate measurement by photometric test., Results: Ninety-five patients, including 53 males, with mean (SD) age of 64.1 (15.3) years were recruited. In gout, serum and SF urate levels were significantly higher than those of CPPD, RA, septic arthritis, AS, and OA ( p 0..01). In all the study population, the serum/SF ratios of urate levels of gout were not different across all groups. However, after excluding 24 patients with creatinine >1.5 mg/dl, the serum/SF ratios of urate were significantly lower in gout compared with the others ( 0.02). There were strongly positive correlations between serum and SF urate levels in gout similar to CPPD, RA, septic arthritis, AS, an dOA (r = 0.81-0.91, p 0O.01)., Conclusion: Despite the highest level of serum and SF urate across all groups, the serum/SF urate ratio in gout patients was the lowest, which suggests that SF urate levels are uniquely higher than their serum. In addition, the levels of serum urate of the entire groups strongly reflect their SF levels.

We reported the oldest acute rheumatic fever (ARF) patient with initial attack at the age of 90 years and experience with ARF in adults in 20 years of observation. The case files of all ARF patients treated by rheumatology unit, Chiang Mai University, were reviewed. Demographic data and clinical profile were recorded and compared between patients with initial attack and patients with recurrent attack. A total of 25 patients with ARF were included. There was no different incidence of arthritis and carditis between two groups. Initial attack patients have higher incidence of prolonged PR-interval (67 vs. 12%, P = 0.049) and longer duration of admission to diagnosis (5 vs. 2 days, P = 0.05). Thirty percent presented initial attack after 30 years of age. ARF is more common in adults than previously recognized. Therefore, clinicians should be aware of this condition and include it in their differential diagnosis of the febrile patients with arthritis.