Objective. The Manhattan Lupus Surveillance Program (MLSP) is a population-based registry designed to determine the prevalence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2007 and the incidence from 2007 to 2009 among residents of New York County (Manhattan), New York, and to characterize cases by race/ethnicity, including Asians and Hispanics, for whom data are lacking.Methods. We identified possible SLE cases from hospital records, rheumatologist records, and administrative databases. Cases were defined according to the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria, the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) classification criteria, or the treating rheumatologist's diagnosis. Rates among Manhattan residents were age-standardized, and capture-recapture analyses were conducted to assess case underascertainment.Results. By the ACR definition, the agestandardized prevalence and incidence rates of SLE were 62.2 and 4.6 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. Rates were~9 times higher in women than in men for prevalence (107.4 versus 12.5) and incidence (7.9 versus 1.0). Compared with non-Hispanic white women (64.3), prevalence was higher among non-Hispanic black (210.9), Hispanic (138.3), and non-Hispanic Asian (91.2) women. Incidence rates were higher among non-Hispanic black women (15.7) compared with non-Hispanic Asian (6.6), Hispanic (6.5), and non-Hispanic white (6.5) women. Capture-recapture adjustment increased the prevalence and incidence rates (75.9 and 6.0, respectively). Alternate SLE definitions without capture-recapture adjustment revealed higher age-standardized prevalence and incidence rates (73.8 and 6.2, respectively, by the SLICC definition and 72.6 and 5.0 by the rheumatologist definition) than the ACR definition, with similar patterns by sex and race/ethnicity.Conclusion. The MLSP confirms findings from other registries on disparities by sex and race/ethnicity, provides new estimates among Asians and Hispanics, and provides estimates using the SLICC criteria.Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a potentially fatal, heterogeneous, chronic, systemic autoimmune disease of unknown etiology (1). Given widely The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Salt tolerance in eighteen advanced rice genotypes was studied under an artificially salinized (EC=8.5 dSm-1) soil conditions after 90 days of transplanting. The results showed that the yield per plant, chlorophyll concentrations, fertility percentage, and number of productive tillers, panicle length and number of primary braches per panicle of all the genotypes were reduced by salinity. However, genotypes viz. Jhona-349 x Basmati-370, NR-1, DM-59418, DM-63275, DM-64198 and DM-38-88 showed better salinity tolerance than others.

Corticosteroids are the most common etiological factor in nontraumatic avascular necrosis (AVN) of bone, accounting for about 10% of arthroplasties performed annually in the United States. Evidence is conflicting on the relative importance of peak dose, daily dose, or cumulative dose, and most likely all three represent "high dose" corticosteroid administration and play a role in AVN. The etiology may be multifactorial with corticosteroids superimposed on genetic or pathological predispositions. Joint preservation depends upon early diagnosis and treatment before fracture of the subchondral trabeculae and joint incongruity. Early intervention depends upon identifying at-risk patients and quantifying their risk by understanding clinical and pathophysiological contributions to that risk. Our data and that of others suggest that a screening MRI of at-risk populations will permit detection of AVN at a prefracture stage when preservation of the joint is possible.

Topoisomerases are nuclear enzymes that regulate topology of DNA by facilitating the temporary cleavage and ligation cycle of DNA. Among all forms of topoisomerases, TOP-IIA is extensively associated with cell proliferation and therefore is an important therapeutic target in diseases that involved cellular proliferation such as cancers. Nearly half of present-day antitumor regimens contain at least one prescription that act as a topoisomerase inhibitor. Generally, tumor cells show divergent expression of TOP-IIA compared to normal cells. The remarkable expression of TOP-IIA in various carcinomas provides a significant biomarker toward understanding the nature of malignancy. TOP-IIA expression and amplification studies help in diagnosing cancer and to observe the disease progression, overall survival (OS) of patients, and response to therapy. This review highlights the research output and analysis in exploring the standing of TOP-IIA in various carcinomas. As some reports show contradiction within the same field of interest, the outline of that may help to induce researchers for further investigation and clarification. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first overview briefly summarizing the prognostic feature of TOP-IIA in various types of cancer.

We studied the prevalence, type and associated features of monoclonal gammopathy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Patients included in the University of Toronto Lupus Database with an abnormal band on serum electropheresis were identified. Monoclonal gammopathy patients were matched with two controls each from the same database by age at SLE diagnosis, sex and disease duration. Of 1083 patients followed at the Lupus Clinic 59 (5.4%) were identified with monoclonal gammopathy. The gammopathies included 32 with IgG, 14 IgM and 12 IgA, one undefined. Nine (15.3%) malignancies were detected in monoclonal gammopathy and 12 (10.1%) in the controls during the entire course of their disease (P = 0.13). None had multiple myeloma. There was no difference between patients with monoclonal gammopathy and their controls with respect to disease activity, damage, or dose of steroids. The mean ESR and gammaglobulin levels in the monoclonal gammopathy patients were higher than the controls at last visit. We conclude that monoclonal gammopathy is more frequent in SLE patients than in the general population and has a benign course in patients with SLE. There were no differences in disease manifestations, treatment approaches, or malignancies between SLE patients with and those without monoclonal gammopathy.

Data from the MLSP revealed disparities in pSS incidence and prevalence by sex among Manhattan residents and differences in pSS incidence by race/ethnicity among women. These data also provided epidemiologic estimates for the major racial/ethnic populations in the US. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Context The extent to which patients take chronic pain medications as prescribed is not well studied, and there are no generally agreed-upon measures. The Quantitative Analgesic Questionnaire (QAQ) is a new instrument designed to comprehensively document patient-reported medication use, generate scores to quantify it (by individual drug, class, and/or overall), and compare it (qualitatively and/or quantitatively) to the regimen as prescribed. Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the development and preliminary validation of the QAQ. Methods The QAQ was studied in a convenience sample of 149 HIV-infected participants. Results We found that the QAQ scores computed for participants’ chronic pain medication regimens were valid based on their correlation with: 1) patient-reported pain intensity (r=0.38, P<0.001); and 2) experienced pain management physicians’ independent quantification of the regimens (r=0.89; P<0.001). The QAQ also demonstrated high inter-rater reliability (r=0.957; P<0.001). Detailed examination of the QAQ data in a subset of 34 participants demonstrated that the QAQ revealed suboptimal adherence in 44% of participants, and contained information that would not have been gleaned from review of the medical record alone in 94%, including use of over-the-counter medications, and quantification of “as needed” dosing. The QAQ also was found to be useful in quantifying change in the medication regimen over time, capturing a change in 50% of the participants from baseline to eight-week follow-up. Conclusion The QAQ is a simple tool that can facilitate understanding of patient-reported chronic pain medication regimens, including calculation of percent adherence and generation of quantitative scores suitable for estimating and tracking change in medication use over time.

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