Results: 

Overall, 22.3% of participants indicated that they had pain, aching or stiffness in either of their shoulders. Women, those aged 50 years and over, current smokers and those classified as obese were all significantly more likely to report shoulder pain. Respondents with shoulder pain scored lower on all domains of the SF36. In those with shoulder symptoms, women had more severe pain and worse shoulder function than men, and older people had worse shoulder function than younger people. Conclusion:  Shoulder pain affects almost a quarter of people in the Australian community, see more with a significant detrimental impact on health-related quality of life and physical functioning. “
“The presence of the lupus erythematosus (LE) phenomenon has been generally conceptualized as an in vitro occurrence where numerous damaged cells are present and substantial nucleo-phagocytosis has occurred. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the positive LE cell phenomenon

selleck screening library has been shown to indicate active disease with major organ involvement which potentially warrants prompt and heavy immunosuppressive therapy. We report a 36-year-old woman with a known history of SLE who presented with fever, left knee effusion, polyserositis, pancytopenia, low complement and high anti-dsDNA antibody levels whose immunosuppressive treatment was escalated in view of the clinically and serologically active SLE, accompanied by the presence of LE cells in her inflammatory yet sterile left knee synovial fluid. Within 3 days of immunosuppressant escalation, her ascites worsened. While microscopic examination of the ascitic fluid also revealed LE cells, culture of the ascitic fluid later grew Candida parapsilosis. The patient subsequently responded to the addition of anti-fungal therapy into her augmented immunosuppressive regime. Coexistence of the LE cell phenomenon and infection tuclazepam in SLE patients has hitherto not been described. This case illustrates that infection remains to be meticulously excluded despite

the presence of the LE phenomenon in the context of clinically and serologically active SLE. “
“We aimed to investigate serum cystatin C (cysC) levels in primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) patients, and evaluate its correlation with renal involment. Eighty-six pSS patients and 65 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were enrolled into the study. Serum cysC, urea, serum creatinine (SCr), creatinine clearance (CrCl), glomerular filtration rates (GFR), Na, K, Mg, Ca, uric acid, P, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), anti-Ro/SS-A, anti-La/SS-B, antinuclear antibodies, 24-h urinary poteinuria and microalbuminuria were evaluated. Mean serum cysC levels did not differ between the patients and healthy controls (P > 0.05). Nine patients with pSS had proteinuria over 150 mg (and microalbuminuria over 30 mg) per 24 h. In patients with proteinuria, serum cysC levels correlated with serum K (r = 0.279, P = 0.024), ESR (r = 0.