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This prospective one-year follow-up study was conducted from 835 visits in 178 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Tender-/swollen-joint count, Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI), Disease Activity Score 28-ESR (DAS28-ESR), DAS28-CRP, Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) and DAS28-monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (DAS28-MCP-1) scores were obtained every 3 months. Radiographs of hands and feet were acquired at baseline and one year. We evaluated the correlation and accuracy of activity scores in predicting remission, HAQ-DI changes and radiographic changes. DAS28-MCP-1 correlated strongly with DAS28-ESR, DAS28-CRP and SDAI scores (0.830, 0.899 and 0.931, respectively, with all P P P = 0.002) and 0.98, respectively (and DAS28-MCP-1 with DAS28-CRP

Objectives To determine whether offspring of Taiwanese mothers with systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis have a higher risk of autism spectrum disorder. Methods Using the National Health Insurance database and National Birth Registry, we identified a cohort of all live births in Taiwan between 2001 and 2012. Children born to mothers with systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis were identified and matched with up to 8 controls by maternal age, 1-minute Apgar score, 5-minute Apgar score, mode of delivery, sex of the child, gestational age, birth weight and place of residence. Marginal Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for ASD in offspring. Results Of 1,893,244 newborns, 0.08% (n = 1594) were born to systemic lupus erythematosus mothers, and 0.04% (n = 673) were born to rheumatoid arthritis mothers. Overall, 5 of 673 (0.74%) offspring of rheumatoid arthritis mothers, 7 of 1594 (0.44%) offspring of systemic lupus erythematosus mothers and 10,631 of 1,893,244 (0.56%) offspring of all mothers developed autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder incidence (per 100,000 person–years) was 140.39 (95% CI, 45.58–327.62) for the rheumatoid arthritis group and 76.19 (95% CI, 30.63–156.97) for the systemic lupus erythematosus group. Autism spectrum disorder risk was not significantly higher for children born to mothers with rheumatoid arthritis (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 0.60–3.40) or systemic lupus erythematosus (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.36–1.59). Conclusions Children born to women with systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis do not have a higher risk of autism spectrum disorder.

In this paper, a CMOS multichannel transceiver (TRX) is proposed for angular identification in automotive car radar applications. Two transmitters (TXs) and six receivers (RXs) are placed on the same die using 65-nm CMOS technology with chip size $3.5 \times 3$ mm2. To generate a millimeter-wave (MMW) frequency-modulated continuous-wave signal, an injection-lock frequency sextupler cascaded a 1-to-8 Wilkinson power dividing network with wideband isolation is designed as the LO-chain to convert external source from 12.5–13.7 to 75–82.2 GHz for both the TXs and RXs. Each TX achieves above 11-dBm output power and the RXs achieve 30-dB conversion gain from 75 to 82 GHz, and the total power dissipation of whole chip is 1.43 W. Compared with other published multichannel TRXs in silicon germanium (SiGe) process, this paper demonstrates compatible performances and the potential of multichannel TRX using CMOS for MMW automotive car radar application.

In this paper, a novel compensation technique is proposed to improve the imbalance of a Marchand balun due to the unequal odd- and even-mode phase velocities of the coupled lines. Using this method, the fundamental rejection of the balanced doubler with the Marchand balun can be effectively enhanced. Two single-balanced doublers using the improved Marchand balun are designed, fabricated, and measured to verify the concept in CMOS processes. One doubler for 15–36-GHz possesses $-$ 10-dB conversion gain with the 3-dB bandwidth of 82.4% and the fundamental rejection of 33 dB. The other doubler for 95–150 GHz achieves $-$ 7.9-dB conversion gain with the 3-dB bandwidth of 45% and the fundamental rejection of 30 dB. With the proposed compensation technique, these frequency doublers feature wide bandwidths and high fundamental rejections.

In this paper, a reduced-size modulator with low LO power using a novel sub-harmonic mixer is presented. Compared to a conventional sub-harmonic mixer, this mixer is pumped by differential LO signals rather than quadrature LO signals. Therefore, the numbers of baluns, couplers, and mixing transistors used in this design are less than the ones used in a conventional modulator. The required LO power is also lower. This modulator demonstrates a measured conversion gain of −8 ∼ −13.5 dB when RF frequency varies from 30 to 65 GHz with 4-dBm LO power. The chip size is 890 × 560 µm2 including pads.

The aim of this study is to study the clinical features and diagnostic performance of IgG4 in Chinese populations with IgG4-related diseases (IgG4-RDs). The medical records of 2901 adult subjects who underwent serum IgG4 level tests conducted between December 2007 and May 2014 were reviewed. Serum concentrations of IgG4 were measured in 2901 cases, including 161 (5.6%) patients with IgG4-RD and 2740 (94.4%) patients without IgG4-RD (non-IgG4-RD group). The mean age of the IgG4-RD patients was 58.4 ± 16.1 years (range: 21–87), and 48 (29.8%) were women. The mean serum IgG4 level was significantly much higher in IgG4-RD patients than in non-IgG4-RD (1062.6 vs 104.3 mg/dL, P 135 mg/dL, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), likelihood ratio (LR)+, and LR− were 86%, 77%, 18%, 99%, 3.70, and 0.19, respectively. When the upper limit of normal was doubled for an IgG4 >270 mg/dL, the corresponding data were 75%, 94%, 43%, 98%, 12.79, and 0.26, respectively. For IgG4 >405 mg/dL (tripling the upper limit of normal), the corresponding data were 62%, 98%, 68%, 98%, 37.00, and 0.39, respectively. When calculated according to the manufacturer's package insert cutoff (>201 mg/dL) for the diagnosis of IgG4-RD, the corresponding sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, LR+, and LR− were 80%, 89%, 29%, 99%, 7.00, and 0.23, respectively. For IgG4 >402 mg/dL (>2× the upper limit of the normal range), the corresponding data were 62%, 98%, 68%, 98%, 36.21, and 0.39, respectively. For IgG4 >603 mg/dL (>3× the upper limit of the normal range), the corresponding data were 50%, 99%, 84%, 97%, 90.77 and 0.51, respectively. The optimal cutoff value of serum IgG4 (measured by nephelometry using a Siemens BN ProSpec instrument and Siemens reagent) for the diagnosis of IgG4-RD was 248 mg/dL, the sensitivity and specificity were 77.6% and 92.8%, respectively. The present study demonstrated that 2 or 3 times the upper limit of the manufacturer's reference range of the IgG4 level was a useful marker for the diagnosis of various types of IgG4-RD and the optimal cutoff level was 248 mg/dL.