Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0003873 (rheumatoid arthritis)
 53,068 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Clinical and roentgenographic follow-up examinations of patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) suggest that neurologic complications are less likely to develop in these patients than in patients with adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A review of the charts of 92 patients treated for JRA during the period from 1970 to 1976 revealed that 29 (31%) had clinical evidence of cervical spine involvement. Follow-up examinations in 15 of these 29 patients revealed that all had limited cervical spine motion, 14 had neck pain and stiffness, and two had torticollis. Roentgenographic evidence of atlantoaxial subluxation was present in five patients and ankylosis of the facet joints in four. Two patients with atlantoaxial subluxation had hypereflexia and clonus, but both long tract signs and subluxation spontaneously resolved in one of these patients. None of these patients had basilar invagination or subaxial instability, which can occur in adult RA.
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PMID:The cervical spine in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. 661 1

We present our experience in the diagnosis, surgical management and long-term follow-up of congenital and acquired osseous-ligamentous abnormalities or pathologies of the craniovertebral junction. The purpose of this study was: (i) to determine the incidence and degree of cervicomedullary compression in pediatric and young adult patients with congenital and acquired abnormalities, and (ii) to correlate cervicomedullary compression with other imaging and clinical factors to determine to what extend cervicomedullary compression is successfully treated with a posterior decompressive procedure, transoral decompression, and medical management. Between January 1995 and December 2004, 26 cases were managed in our department. These patients had: rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (3); traumatic injury (2); congenital basilar impression (5, in 2 cases a posteriorly oriented or retroflexed odontoid); infection (10); craniovertebral junction Pott's disease (9); os odonteideum (3); condylus tertius (1); and tumor (2). Six of the patients (23.1%) had syringomyelia. Only three (11.3%) were in the pediatric age group. Symptoms and signs included headache (72%), ataxia (38%), lower cranial nerve dysfunction (54%), quadriparesis (44%), hyperreflexia (76%), Hoffman positivity (72%), achilles clonus (72%) nystagmus (33%) and dysphagia (22%). The mean follow-up time was 44 months (range 3-85). Twelve (46.2%) had undergone posterior fossa decompression; seven (26.6%) had ventral decompression. Seven of the patients (26.6%) had medical management. The major morbidity included pharyngeal wound sepsis leading to dehiscence (3.8%), valopharyngeal insufficiency (3.8%), cerebrospinal fluid leakage (3.8%), postoperative macroglossia (3.8%) and inadequate anterior decompression (3.8%). Transient neurological deterioration occurred in two patients (7.6%). Our management paradigm will result in some neurologic improvements and limit the progression of symptoms. Patients with these pathologies are likely to show a good neurologic outcome when treatment, whether with or without surgery, is administered early in the course of the disease.
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PMID:Management of cervicomedullary compression in patients with congenital and acquired osseous-ligamentous pathologies. 1733 28