The frequencies of male patients, illiterate patients, patients living alone, patients with serious visual impairment, those with low income, and patients with

high creatinine were significantly higher among RA patients with MTX-related neutropenia than in controls (p values < 0.05). The RA patients with MTX-related neutropenia had significantly lower MMSE scores, and significantly higher HADS-A and HADS-D scores than controls (p values < 0.05). In addition, the proportion of patients with probable dementia was significantly higher in RA patients with MTX-related neutropenia than in controls (p < 0.001). Twenty-six of the 37 patients (70.3 %) developed neutropenia with daily dosing. Patients who used MTX daily were more likely to be living alone than those using weekly dosing buy PLX-4720 (p = 0.011). Multivariate analysis showed that having probable selleck inhibitor dementia

on the MMSE test (OR 52.6), low income level (OR 56.8) and age (OR 1.12) were independent risk factors for the development of MTX-related neutropenia. The presence of probable dementia on MMSE, low socioeconomical status and older age are associated with serious toxicity in RA patients using MTX. Measures should be taken to prevent wrong MTX dosing by the patients. Compliance and patient education is of major importance, in particular, in the patients presented in this study.”
“To investigate associations of the Fas and FasL genes polymorphisms with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One hundred patients with RA and age-, sex- and

ethnically matched 101 controls were included. Four polymorphisms of Fas (-670 A > G rs1800682, -1377 G > A rs2234767) and FasL (IVS2nt-124 A > G rs5030772, -844 T > C rs763110) genes were typed from genomic DNA. Genotype distributions and allelic frequencies were compared between patients and control subjects. After the history and clinical examination of patients with RA, in terms of pain, fatigue and general health status were evaluated LY2874455 chemical structure by visual analogue scale. Thereafter, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, blood count and rheumatoid factor levels were measured. The Disease Activity Score-28, Health Assessment Questionnaire and modified Sharp score were used to evaluate the disease activity, functional disability and radiological damage, and their relationships with the Fas and FasL gene polymorphisms were investigated. In patients with RA, CT and TT genotypes of FasL-844, polymorphism were twofold and 4.8-fold higher, and AA genotype of FasL IVS2nt-124 polymorphism was 3.4-fold higher than the control group (respectively, p = 0.05, p = 0.002, p = 0.039). T allele of FasL-844 polymorphism was more frequent in patients than controls (respectively, 52.5 vs. 41.4 %, p = 0.027).