Rheumatism

A Delphi study was performed to achieve consensus on relevant tasks that need to be performed in the process of selecting OMIs for outcomes (i.e., constructs or domains) included in a COS. The resulting guideline is based on the results of the Delphi study. Also, existing methodology that has been developed by COSMIN for performing systematic reviews of OMIs was used to support the guideline [4 ] as well as methodology that stems from the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Filter 2.0 and the OMERACT Handbook for developing COSs for rheumatic diseases [10 , 11 (link)], and the Primary Outcomes Reporting in Trials (PORTal) initiative which looks at primary outcomes reported in adult and pediatric clinical trials [12 ]. These other sources of evidence were used to expand on items to a level not discussed in the Delphi study.

The PAM 13-Dutch was sent to 2542 members of the Dutch National Panel of people with Chronic illness or Disability (NPCD) in April 2010 (study A) and again to 973 members in June 2010 (study B). The second sample were patients with Asthma and/or COPD, who had also received a questionnaire in study A. By doing so, the test-retest reliability of the instrument could be established.
The Dutch National Panel of people with Chronic illness or Disability (NPCD) is a nationwide prospective panel-study in the Netherlands. NPCD consists of over 4000 people aged 15 years and over with medically diagnosed chronic disease(s) and/or moderate to severe levels of physical disability. It has been set up to provide information with respect to the consequences of chronic illness and disability from the patient’s perspective. For the purpose of this study, we only selected panel members who had been diagnosed with a somatic chronic disease. Patients are included in the panel on the basis of a the oldest medical diagnosis of a chronic disease (=index disease). The medical diagnosis or diagnoses of chronic diseases of the patients were registered by their general practitioner (GP) using the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC). The registered chronic disease (oldest diagnosis = index disease) of the participants in study A could be classified into nine broad categories: asthma and COPD (together 38%), diabetes (12%), cardiovascular diseases (11%), rheumatic diseases (11%), neurological diseases (6%), cancer (4%), chronic digestive diseases (4%) en other chronic diseases (15%). Asthma and COPD patients were oversampled in study A because they would be approached again for study B.
We had chosen to validate the PAM 13-Dutch in the NPCD subsample of people with a chronic illness because it closely resembled the samples which were used in the validation studies in the United States and Denmark [2 (link),14 (link)]. In the USA, a group of 1515 randomly selected adults (age 45+) participated in the development study, of which 79% had at least one chronic disease [2 (link)]. In the Danish study, 467 patients (age 43 - 75 years) who were diagnosed with different aspects of dysglycaemia (Impaired Fasting Glucose, Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Type 2 diabetes) participated [14 (link)].
In both data collections, the instrument was part of a larger survey on chronic care and self-management. When entering the Panel, the participants give informed consent to the use of their data for research purposes. According to Dutch law, no further ethical approval is required.

This study was conducted on patients with active IgG4-RD who were treated with immunosuppressants and had elevated serum IgG4 levels at a tertiary referral center in South Korea between January 2011 and December 2020. All patients met the 2011 IgG4-RD diagnostic criteria [7 (link)]: (1) a clinical examination with diffuse/localized swelling or masses in single or multiple organs; (2) an elevated serum IgG4 level; and (3) histopathologic findings of lymphoplasmacytic infiltration and fibrosis, > 40% IgG4-positive plasma cells, and > 10 IgG4-positive plasma cells per high-power field. Patients were also evaluated according to the 2019 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for diagnosis of IgG4-RD [14 (link)]. Patients with pancreatic involvement were classified as definite or probable cases using the International Consensus Diagnostic Criteria (ICDC) for autoimmune pancreatitis [15 (link)]. We excluded patients with other rheumatic diseases, malignancy, or infection. Either glucocorticoid alone or glucocorticoid plus azathioprine were used as an initial regimen for remission and were maintained for at least six months and up to 24 months. To evaluate the factors associated with relapse, we classified patients into relapsed and non-relapsed groups.

This cross-sectional study included a large cohort of 10,364 adult RA patients (new and existing cases) fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria [7 (link)] that were recruited from 26 specialized rheumatology departments and centers representing 22 major governorates across the country by members of the Egyptian College of Rheumatology (ECR) during the period from September 2018 till December 2021. Any patients with another rheumatic disease or below the age of 18 were excluded. The patients’ in the corresponding university-teaching hospitals provided informed consents to participate and the study was approved by the local ethics committee, in accordance to the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.