REVIEW - Felty's syndrome

[Guest guest]

Heck, a!! I've been a nurse for 12 years now and some of the

terminology is still Greek to me!!!...Marina

> Some of these abstracts can be very hard to understand. They are

> written by professionals for professionals. Some of our members have

> medical knowledge and understand them. Here is a site that better

> explains what Felty's syndrome is:

>

> http://www.medicinenet.com/feltys_syndrome/article.htm

>

> I've been reading abstracts for years and many things are still Greek

> to me!

> a

>

> >

[Guest guest]

Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. 2004 Oct;18(5):631-45.

Felty's syndrome.

Fourth General Rheumatology Department, National Institute of Rheumatology

and Physiotherapy, Budapest, 25-29 el L. St, 1023 Hungary.

balintg@...

Felty's syndrome (FS) comprises a triad of rheumatoid arthritis (RA),

neutropenia and splenomegaly, occurring in less than 1% of RA patients.

Clinically it is characterized by severe joint destruction contrasting with

moderate or absent joint inflammation and severe extra-articular disease,

including a high frequency of rheumatoid nodules, lymphadenopathy,

hepatopathy, vasculitis, leg ulcers, skin pigmentation etc. Recurrent

bacterial infections are mostly due to the severe, otherwise unexplained

neutropenia. The cause of neutropenia lies in both decreased granulopoiesis

and increased peripheral destruction of granulocytes. Recurrent infections

may lead to increased mortality. Spontaneous remission of the syndrome also

occurs. Over 95% of FS patients are positive for rheumatoid factor (RF),

47-100% are positive for antinuclear antibody (ANA), and 78% of patients

have the HLA-DR4*0401 antigen. Some 30% of FS patients have large granular

lymphocyte (LGL) expansion. LGL expansion associated with uncomplicated RA

is immunogenetically and phenotypically very similar to but clinically

different from FS. Neutropenia of FS can be effectively treated with

disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), the widest experience being

with methotrexate (MTX). Results of treatment with granulocyte

colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) are encouraging, but there is no

experience with other biological agents. Splenectomy results in immediate

improvement of neutropenia in 80% of the patients, but the rate of infection

decreases to a lesser degree.

PMID: 15454123

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Retrieve & dopt=Abstra\

ctPlus & list_uids=15454123

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org