Dear All,
Greetings of the day!
Some very interesting articles about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthropathy are highlights of this issue. Sandberg and his team have shown that certain infections particularly gastroenteritis, urinary tract infections and genital infections before the clinical onset of RA are associated with a lowered risk of development of RA, while infections at other sites for example, sinusitis, tonsillitis and pneumonia are not associated with the same. This study further supports the hypothesis that changes in gut microbiom could diminish the risk of RA development. The study was published in Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.
This is a new and interesting finding from American veterans and needs confirmation from future studies with other ethnic groups. The finding also raises the question if there is increased mortality in other asymptomatic autoantibody positive population?
Patient’s perspective is increasingly gaining importance in the assessment of disease. From this month’s column of the “Patient’s Perspective,” we have included abstract summaries of important studies on the same over the past few months.
We sincerely request all members to post your questions to us so that we can put those questions to the experts.
We welcome your suggestions to improve this IRA activity. Please post your suggestions/comments on iraenewsleter@hotmail.com
Regards,
Banwari Sharma
Editor, IRA e-Newsletter
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