THU0597 CORNEAL MELT - DON’T ALWAYS BLAME RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Background:

Corneal melt is a rare inflammatory disease of the peripheral cornea; it may lead to perforation of the globe and visual failure. Corneal melt can be a manifestation of systemic vasculitis in patients with RA and other conditions, such as cancer. Without early and aggressive treatment it may be associated with a poor visual outcome and a high mortality. It has been reported in patients with stable RA.

Objectives:

A case report in a patient with long standing but well controlled Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and metastatic disease.

Methods:

A 75 year old male with a background of sero positive Rheumatoid Arthritis for more than 10 years presented to the Eye Casualty with a two week history of a painful left red eye. His other medical history was significant for Stage IIB poorly differentiated cancer of the left lower lobe. Left lower lobectomy with a patch of diaphragm resected. Intratumoural lymphovascular invasion noted. He completed Adjuvant Carboplatin/Vinorelbine chemotherapy September, 2017. He had DVT proximal left leg 22ndof September, 2017. Follow up CT in 2018 demonstrated a right renal upper pole lesion for which he was awaiting biopsy with?metastatic lung disease vs primary renal carcinoma. His RA was well controlled on Methotrexate 10mg weekly. He had been treated by the ophthalmology team for left marginal Keratitis for the prior 2 months with steroid eye drops without significant improvement. On presentation to ED, he described sharp eye pain, waking him from the sleep, associated with watery discharge and photophobia. Examination showed corneal melt in left eye involving 25% of inferior portion of the cornea and spastic entropion with injecting eye lashes. He had no active joints and there were no other signs of vasculitis. CRP was 4.1. He had a negative ANA and ANCA; viral swabs were negative. He was admitted under the medical team. Intravenous Methyl Prednisolone was started. The patient felt better after 5 days of Methyl Prednisolone. Left temporary tarsorrhaphy was done by Ophthalmology. Cyclophosphamide was initiated after discussion with Oncologist pending the result of the renal biopsy. Patient was discharged after 5 days of admission in the hospital

Results:

The renal biopsy was positive for metastatic Squamous cell carcinoma of lung. Cyclophosphamide was withdrawn and he was started on Carboplatin/Gemcitabine. The corneal melt improved with complete resolution of his visual symptoms.

Conclusion:

In this case, although the history of RA was felt by the ophthalmology team to be the most likely association with the corneal melt, we would argue the oncological diagnoses were likely the driving force behind the presentation.

References:

[1]Sule A, Balakrishnan C, Gaitonde S, Mittal G, Pathan E, Gokhale NS, et al. Rheumatoid corneal melt. Rheumatology (Oxford)2002;41:705–6.

[2]S. Yano, K. Kondo, M. Yamaguchi et al., “Distribution and function of EGFR in human tissue and the effect of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibition,” Anticancer Research, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 3639–3650, 2003.

Disclosure of Interests:

None declared

Standardized grip strength as an outcome measure in early rheumatoid arthritis

OBJECTIVES

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suffer progressive loss of hand function and have weaker hand grip than the healthy population. In this study we aimed to validate hand grip strength standardized by age and gender (z score) against currently accepted clinical measures of disease activity.

METHOD

Electronic records of patients with a diagnosis of RA seen between April 2007 and December 2011 were screened for the documentation of tender and swollen joint counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP), along with patient global activity score and grip strength. Bilateral grip strengths were converted to z scores on the basis of previously published age- and gender-corrected normative data for grip strength. The z scores were then correlated against components of disease activity scores.

RESULTS

Ninety patients diagnosed with RA had been seen 602 times within 2 years of diagnosis. Hand grip data were available for 204 visits. There was a statistically significant inverse correlation between grip strength z scores and the tested variables. The sensitivity and specificity of a hand grip z score of -1.5 for predicting remission were, respectively, 70% and 76% for the right hand and 82% and 69% for the left hand.

CONCLUSIONS

Hand grip testing and subsequent conversion to z scores corrected for age and gender correlate with disease activity in early RA. We have shown that the grip strength z scores can discriminate between various disease states, and the strength seems to return to near normative data when the disease is in remission.

Dietary adequacy of Inuit in the Canadian Arctic

BACKGROUND

Food intake amongst Canadian Inuit is currently in transition with a concurrent increase in diet-related chronic disease. There is a lack of current data on nutrient intake and dietary adequacy in this population. The present study aimed to assess dietary intake and adequacy amongst Inuit adults in a community in Nunavut, Canada.

METHODS

Random sampling of 130 households in a remote Inuit community in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, Canada, was used for this cross-sectional study. Up to three 24-h dietary recalls were collected on nonconsecutive days, capturing weekday and weekend consumption. Data were analysed to estimate energy and nutrient intake, to determine dietary adequacy, and to summarise the most commonly reported foods and the top food contributors to selected nutrients.

RESULTS

The response rate was 69%, with 75 Inuit adults participating (mean (standard deviation (SD)) age 44 (SD=17) years). Mean (SD) daily energy intake was 9.3 (4.4) MJ and 8.7 (3.5) MJ for men and women, respectively. Intakes of dietary fibre, calcium, total folate and vitamins A, D and E were below the Dietary Reference Intakes (Estimated Average Requirements where available) for 60-100% of all men and women. Traditional foods contributed substantially to protein and iron intake, whilst shop-bought foods were primary contributors to total fat, carbohydrate and sugar intake.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study reports an in-depth assessment of total dietary quality amongst Inuit adults in Nunavut, Canada. The results obtained indicate inadequate intakes of several essential nutrients, as well as a reliance on a nontraditional diet. A nutrition intervention is needed to prevent a continued rise in diet-related chronic disease incidence.

Gender, body mass index and rheumatoid arthritis disease activity: results from the QUEST-RA Study

OBJECTIVES

To investigate whether body mass index (BMI), as a proxy for body fat, influences rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity in a gender-specific manner.

METHODS

Consecutive patients with RA were enrolled from 25 countries into the QUEST-RA program between 2005 and 2008. Clinical and demographic data were collected by treating rheumatologists and by patient self-report. Distributions of Disease Activity Scores (DAS28), BMI, age, and disease duration were assessed for each country and for the entire dataset; mean values between genders were compared using Student's t-tests. An association between BMI and DAS28 was investigated using linear regression, adjusting for age, disease duration and country.

RESULTS

A total of 5,161 RA patients (4,082 women and 1,079 men) were included in the analyses. Overall, women were younger, had longer disease duration, and higher DAS28 scores than men, but BMI was similar between genders. The mean DAS28 scores increased with increasing BMI from normal to overweight and obese, among women, whereas the opposite trend was observed among men. Regression results showed BMI (continuous or categorical) to be associated with DAS28. Compared to the normal BMI range, being obese was associated with a larger difference in mean DAS28 (0.23, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.34) than being overweight (0.12, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.21); being underweight was not associated with disease activity. These associations were more pronounced among women, and were not explained by any single component of the DAS28.

CONCLUSIONS

BMI appears to be associated with RA disease activity in women, but not in men.

An audit of completeness of HIV clinical histories: before and after introduction of an HIV proforma

Summary

The completeness of a ‘first consultation’ human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinical history before and after the introduction of an HIV proforma was audited by a retrospective case notes review. Twenty key variables considered essential to every history were assessed. There was a significant improvement in the documentation of 14 of the 18 items for men and 14 of the 20 items for women post-proforma with no deterioration in documentation of any of the variables. Our study supports the introduction of a structured ‘first consultation’ notes proforma for use during consultations with both newly diagnosed HIV-positive patients and those transferring their care from other centres.

AIDS education strategies: evaluating the fear response

1. Despite educational interventions, evidence suggests that negative attitudes about AIDS risk persist among clinical hospital staff. In diverse study populations, associations have been found between psychosocial phenomena and on the job accidents and injuries. 2. This article describes a pilot study to explore whether fearful attitudes of clinicians contribute to the adverse behaviors of needlestick injuries and mucosal splashes. The authors sought to demonstrate whether desensitization therapy would be effective in reducing fear response. 3. A serendipitous finding of the study was that organizational and interpersonal conflict frequently provoked fear and anxiety responses. There is a continued need to examine the domain of AIDS related fears among clinical staff, as well as a need to seek a better understanding of this fear as part of the tensions of organizational dynamics in hospitals. 4. Occupational health nurses working in hospitals are in a unique position to uncover relationships among all types of incidents that may indicate fear and anxiety among clinical staff.