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In spite of potential successful pregnancies after CYC exposure, this drug has teratogenic effects and prescription must be avoided during the pregnancy period. At the same time, the occurrence of these reported unplanned pregnancies strengthen the need of improving patients' education on pregnancy risks during immunosuppressive treatment.

Background: Recommendations of the Myopathy Committee of the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology for the management and therapy of systemic autoimmune myopathies (SAM). Main body: The review of the literature was done in the search for the Medline (PubMed), Embase and Cochrane databases including studies published until June 2018. The Prisma was used for the systematic review and the articles were evaluated according to the levels of Oxford evidence. Ten recommendations were developed addressing the management and therapy of systemic autoimmune myopathies. Conclusions: Robust data to guide the therapeutic process are scarce. Although not proven effective in controlled clinical trials, glucocorticoid represents first-line drugs in the treatment of SAM. Intravenous immunoglobulin is considered in induction for refractory cases of SAM or when immunosuppressive drugs are contra-indicated. Consideration should be given to the early introduction of immunosuppressive drugs. There is no specific period determined for the suspension of glucocorticoid and immunosuppressive drugs when individually evaluating patients with SAM. A key component for treatment in an early rehabilitation program is the inclusion of strengthbuilding and aerobic exercises, in addition to a rigorous evaluation of these activities for remission of disease and the education of the patient and his/her caregivers.

Objective To describe coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and pregnancy outcomes in patients with rheumatic disease who were pregnant at the time of infection. Methods Since March 2020 the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA) has collected cases of patients with rheumatic disease with COVID-19. We report details of pregnant women at the time of COVID-19 infection, including obstetric details separately ascertained from providers. Results We report on 39 patients, including 22 with obstetric detail available. The mean and median age was 33 years, range 24-45 years. Rheumatic disease diagnoses included: rheumatoid arthritis (n=9), systemic lupus erythematosus (n=9), psoriatic/other inflammatory arthritides (n=8) and anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome (n=6). Most had a term birth (16/22), with 3 pre-term births, one termination, one miscarriage and one woman yet to deliver at time of report. A quarter (n=10/39) of pregnant women were hospitalised following COVID-19 diagnosis. Two of 39 (5%) required supplemental oxygen (both hospitalised); no patient died. The majority did not receive specific medication treatment for their COVID-19 (n=32/39, 82%), seven patients received some combination of anti-malarials, colchicine, anti-IL-1beta, azithromycin, glucocorticoids, and lopinavir/ritonavir. Conclusion Women with rheumatic diseases who were pregnant at the time of COVID-19 had favourable outcomes. These data have limitations due to the small size and methodology, though they provide cautious optimism for pregnancy outcomes for women with rheumatic disease given the increased risk of poor outcomes that have been reported in other series of pregnant women with COVID-19.

Introduction. International guidelines recommend interruption of anti-TNF medications in the perioperative period, but there are no randomized trials to support such recommendation. Objectives. To study literature evidence assessing the risk of surgical site infections in orthopedic surgery patients with RA using anti-TNF drugs, compared to untreated patients or those using conventional DMARD. Methods. Systematic review of cohort studies is concerning surgical site infections in orthopedic procedures in patients with RA. Results. Three studies were selected. Only one was considered of high-quality, albeit with low statistical power. The review resulted in inconclusive data, since the best quality study showed no significant differences between groups, while others showed increased risk of infections in patients using anti-TNF medications. Conclusion. It is unclear whether patients with RA using anti-TNF medications are at increased risk of surgical site infections. Randomized controlled trials or new high quality observational studies are needed to clarify the issue.

Camurati-Engelmann disease (CED) is a rare disorder included in the group of craniotubular hyperostosis diseases. Corticosteroids are used for pain management in CED, but in refractory or corticosteroid-non-tolerant patients, pain management is limited. We report the case of a woman with CED diagnosed in early infancy whose initial complaints included persistent bone pain associated with progressive functional disability. She was treated with steroids but over time became dependent on higher doses with only mild pain relief. In her third decade, she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC) and was treated with mesalazine, azathioprine and prednisolone. Due to recurrent exacerbations of UC, treatment was changed to infliximab, an antitumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα). Remission of UC was achieved and CED-associated pain also improved with infliximab. This is the first report showing a possible role of anti-TNFα in pain management in CED with unsatisfactory response to steroids.

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the major indications of total hip (THA) or knee (TKA) arthroplasty. International studies have suggested that RA is a risk factor for prosthesis infections. Objectives: To compare patients with RA and patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of other etiologies with regard to the incidence of prosthesis, incisional, and other systemic postoperative infections in THA and TKA. Methods: Retrospective, comparative cohort of patients followed up after undergoing THA or TKA at the Hospital SARAH-Brasília, from 1996 to 2007. Results: Seventy-fi ve arthroplasties (28 TKA and 47 THA) were identifi ed in RA patients. As controls, 131 surgeries (56 TKA and 75 THA) in OA patients were randomly selected and stratifi ed by surgery and gender. No signifi cant difference was observed between the RA and OA groups regarding the rates of prosthesis infections (TKA 7.1% vs. 0% and THA 2.1% vs. 0%, respectively, both with P > 0.1), incisional infections (TKA 14.3% vs. 3.3% and THA 4.3 vs. 1.3%, respectively, both with P > 0.1), and systemic infections (TKA 7.1% vs. 3.6%, P = 0.92 and THA 4.3% vs. 10.7%, P > 0.1, respectively). After multiple logistic regression, the results did not change. Conclusions: RA was not identifi ed as a risk factor for perioperative infections in THA and TKA in this case series of the Hospital SARAH-Brasília, as compared with the group of patients with primary OA or OA secondary to non-infl ammatory diseases. The low incidence of infections in both groups may explain our fi ndings.