Victor R. Pimentel-Quiroz

Hospital Nacional Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen · Rheumatology

Aim: The aim of this study was to identify demographic and clinical risk factors for mortality in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitides (AAVs) in a Peruvian tertiary referral hospital. Methods: Medical records of patients with AAV according to classification criteria or diagnosed by an experienced rheumatolo...

Most of the existing literature, including epidemiological studies and clinical trials, on antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) include North American (mainly United States and Canada), European, and Asian populations. Few studies have focused on multiethnic populations such as the one from Latin America. Racial...

Background/Objective The 2019 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism Classification Criteria (2019 AECC) for IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is considered a significant advancement in the study of this condition. Most studies evaluating their performance have focused on White and Asian patients, leaving a knowledge gap...

Objective To develop international consensus-based recommendations for early referral of individuals with suspected polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). Methods A task force including 29 rheumatologists/internists, 4 general practitioners, 4 patients and a healthcare professional emerged from the international giant cell arteritis and PMR study group. Th...

Background Frailty, measured with the SLICC-FI, has been reported as a predictor of damage in several cohorts. Objectives To evaluate the SLICC-FI as a predictor of hospitalization in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods Patients from a single-center prevalent cohort were included. The SLICC-FI was measured at baseline. Hospitaliz...

Objective Poor medical adherence has been reported to be associated with several negative outcomes in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, such as increased disease activity and damage accrual. However, the predictive factors of medical adherence have been only scarcely been evaluated overall, and particularly in Latin American populations....

Background Self-efficacy for managing chronic conditions assesses the confidence an individual has on her/his ability of successfully performing specific tasks related to a chronic condition in several different situations. It is considered a modifiable behavior in educational interventions in SLE patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the...

Background Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is impaired in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, but its association with physicians reported disease activity is modest to none. Objectives To determine the impact of patients reported disease activity on their HRQoL. Methods We evaluated patient-reported disease activity on SLE patien...

Objective To determine the possible predictive value of self-efficacy on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with SLE. Methods Patients with SLE from the Almenara Lupus Cohort were included. Self-efficacy was ascertained with the six domains from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) self-efficacy for...

Objectives: To explore current management practices for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) by general practitioners (GPs) and rheumatologists including implications for clinical trial recruitment. Methods: An English language questionnaire was constructed by a working group of rheumatologists and GPs from 6 countries. The questionnaire focused on: 1:...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects more severely non-White populations, due to their genetic background and sociodemographic characteristics. Several studies have evaluated Latin American SLE patients to determine their genetic and clinical characteristics as well as prognostic factors; these studies have not only allowed the development of...

Objective To evaluate the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Frailty Index (SLICC-FI) as a predictor of damage accrual in a primarily Mestizo SLE patient cohort. Methods Patients from a single-center prevalent cohort were included. Damage accrual was defined as the increase in the SLICC/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) damage...

Objectives To investigate factors associated with severe COVID-19 in people with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). Methods Demographic data, clinical characteristics and COVID-19 outcome severity of adults with IIM were obtained from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician-reported registry. A 3-point ordinal COVID-19 severity sc...

Background: Clinical remission is the goal in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) management; however, this can be difficult to achieve in several parts of the world. Our objective was to determine predictors of remission and remission/low disease activity (LDA) in RA. Methods: A longitudinal real-setting RA cohort was followed up (January 2016-2020). Pre...

Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients have a worse health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than the general population. This seems to be related to patients characteristics like age, poverty, behavioral issues rather than to disease activity or damage. Self-efficacy is defined as individual’s confidence on performing a task and coul...

Background Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is diagnosed and treated by both general practitioners (GP) and rheumatologists. How rheumatologists around the world manage the referral process of patients with PMR from GP’s has not been described. EULAR/ACR guidelines recommend initial prednisolone doses between 12.5 and 25 mg, but it is unknown if guidel...

Background Mental disorders constitute a serious and underestimated problem in Latin America and they could have worse features in comparison with Europe or North America ⁽¹⁾; that was the case even before the COVID-19 epidemic ensued in 2020. Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the factors associated with the occurrence of men...

Background There is a paucity of data in the literature about the outcome of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Objectives To investigate factors associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes in patients with IIM. Methods Data on demographics, number of comorbidities, region, COVID-19 time peri...

Introducción. En pacientes con lupus eritematoso sistémico (LES) existe incremento de infecciones debido a la propia enfermedad, al uso de inmunosupresores y corticoides. Objetivo. Identificar los factores asociados a infecciones serias en pacientes lúpicos en un hospital de referencia nacional. Estudio retrospectivo, analítico, de casos y control...

Background Flares in patients with SLE, regardless of their severity, have been associated with damage accrual. However, their impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not been fully evaluated. In fact, disease activity is only minimally associated with HRQoL. Objective To determine the association between flares and HRQoL. Methods Pa...

Objective To determine if achieving lupus low disease activity state (LLDAS) or remission prevents damage accrual in a primarily Mestizo population. Methods Patients with SLE from a single-centre cohort with at least two visits occurring every 6 months were included. The definitions used were the following: for remission, the 2021 Definition Of Re...

Little is known about the epidemiology of systemic vasculitis in South American countries. The aim of this study is to compare the prevalence of systemic vasculitides in two vasculitis referral centers from Brazil and Peru. A cross-sectional study was performed and all patients above 18 years of age, with at least 6 months of follow-up and who met...

Objectives This study aims to determine whether the MetS predicts damage accrual in SLE patients. Methods This longitudinal study was conducted in a cohort of consecutive SLE patients seen since 2012 at one single Peruvian institution. Patients had a baseline visit and then follow-up visits every 6 months. Patients with ≥ 2 visits were included. E...

Objective To assess whether the care model (comprehensive vs regular) has any impact on the clinical outcomes of systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Methods Between August 2019 and January 2020, we evaluated SLE patients being cared for at two Peruvian hospitals to define the impact of care model on disease activity state and health-related qua...

Objectives: This study aims to determine the factors associated with absenteeism, presenteeism, and overall work impairment in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods: A total of 133 consecutive working patients with SLE were assessed between October 2017 and December 2018, using a standardized data collection form. Sociodemograph...

Background Remission and LLDAS have been proposed as the treatment goal for SLE patients. Different investigators have reported that achieving these states prevent damage accrual; however, their independent impact on the occurrence of flares has been only scarcely evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the independent impact of remission...

Clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM) is associated with antibodies directed against the protein encoded by the melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5). CADM patients have an increased risk of developing rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD) and spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Two Peruvian cases of RP-ILD-associated...

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a complex and chronic disease which impacts on the reproductive function of patients suffering this condition. This assertion is supported by the fact that lupus patients have a smaller family size in comparison to the general population as well as a higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. While this disease per s...

Background The impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with rheumatic disease are unclear. We developed the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Patient Experience Survey to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with rheumatic disease worldwide. Methods Survey questions were developed by key stakeholder groups a...

Objective The identification of risk factors for COVID-19 adverse course in autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) is of the utmost importance when approaching patient management; however, data are scarce in relation to the Latin American population. The objective of this study was to determine predictors of hospitalization for COVID-19 patients from...

Aim: To validate the new classification criteria for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis in a real-life Peruvian cohort of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis patients. Methods: We reviewed medical records from a Peruvian tertiary care center from January 1990 to December 2019. Antineutrophil cytoplasm...

Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the demographic and clinical features of patients with ANCA-associated vasculitides (AAVs) in a Peru- vian tertiary referral hospital. Methods: Medical records of patients with AAV according to classifica- tion criteria or diagnosed by an experienced rheumatologist, and covering the period between January...

Objective The Lupus Foundation of America Rapid Evaluation of Activity in Lupus (LFA-REAL) clinician-reported outcome (ClinRO) and the LFA-REAL patient-reported outcome (PRO) were developed in order to capture manifestations of SLE from the perspective of both the clinician and the patient. The aim of this study is to compare the LFA-REAL ClinRO an...

Objective To define the factors associated with fatigue in Mestizo patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Methods This is a cross-sectional study of SLE patients from a single center cohort. Visits were performed every six months. For these analyses, the first visit between October 2017 and December 2018 was included. Demographic and cl...

Objective To determine if low disease activity state (LDAS)/remission predicts a better health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus from a single center and having completed at least 2 visits were included. Visits were performed every 6 months. HRQoL was measured with the LupusQoL questionnaire. The d...

Background There is lack studies about performance of new criteria set for ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (AAV) in Latin-America. Objectives To validate the new classification criteria for AAV in a real-life cohort of patients with these conditions. Methods We performed a review of medical records from January 1990 to December 2019 at Hospital Nacion...

Background The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) Frailty Index (SLICC-FI) has been developed as a predictor of outcomes in SLE patients ¹⁻³ . However, it needs to be validated in several populations. Objectives To evaluate the SLICC-FI as a predictor of future damage accrual in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients....

Introduction Serum uric acid levels have been reported as predictors of cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and renal morbidity in patients with SLE. However, their role in cumulative global damage in these patients has not yet been determined. Objective To determine whether serum uric acid levels are associated with new damage in patients wit...

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare patient and physician (MD) assessment of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2016 and December 2017 at 2 Peruvian hospitals. One group assessed disease activity using a visual analog scale (VAS, 0-100 mm) and th...

Objective The aim of this study was to determine whether remission and low disease activity state protect systemic lupus erythematosus patients from being hospitalized. Materials and methods Patients from the Almenara Lupus Cohort were included. Visits were performed every 6 months. Variables were measured at each visit. Hospitalizations were eval...

Aim The aim of this study was to identify factors predictive of serious infections over time in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods A multi-ethnic, multi-national Latin American SLE cohort was studied. Serious infection was defined as one that required hospitalization, occurred during a hospitalization or led to death. Potent...

Background Chronic fatigue negatively impacts on quality of life in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients (1,2), does not allow optimal clinical results, being an negative predictor for clinical remission (3,4). Objectives The objective was to determine whether disease activity correlates with increased fatigue in the follow-up of a RA patients. Met...

Background Self-efficacy for managing chronic conditions assesses the confidence a person has on the ability of successfully perform specific tasks related to a chronic condition in several different situations. Self-efficacy is considered one of the most important modifiable factors in educational interventions that enhance Systemic Lupus Erythema...

Background Work disability in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is common but the factors associated with it in Low and Middle Income Countries have been scarcely evaluated(1). Objectives To determine the prevalence of and the factors associated with work disability in SLE patients. Methods We studied 239 consecutive (1997 American...

Background Fatigue can be defined as feeling tired and exhausted and lacking energy (1). It is associated with a poor quality of life; 53 to 80% of SLE patients identify fatigue as their main symptom (2) Objectives To define factors associated with fatigue in Mestizo patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). Methods This is a cross-sectio...

The affiliations of Manuel F. Ugarte-Gil, one of the author of the above article has a discrepancy between the online version of the publisher’s internet portal (Springerlink.com) and the online pdf version.

Background LDAS is an achievable goal in the treatment of SLE patients and it is associated with a lower probability of flares, damage and mortality; whether HRQoL is also influenced hy LDAS has only been evaluated cross-sectionally but not longitudinally. The aim of this study was to determine if achieving LDAS predicts a better HRQoL Methods SLE...

Objective To determine the impact of homocysteine levels on damage accrual in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Methods This longitudinal study was conducted in consecutive patients seen every 6 months at our Rheumatology Department since 2012. Patients with available homocysteine levels and who had at least one subsequent visit were in...

Objetivos: estimar el efecto de los antimaláricos (AM) sobre los diferentes dominios del índice de daño SLICC (SDI). Métodos: se estudiaron pacientes con diagnóstico clínico reciente (≤2 años) de lupus eritematoso sistémico (LES) de la cohorte GLADEL.

Background We have previously shown that Latin American SLE patients treated with Antimalarials (AMs) have a 25% lower risk of damage accrual than patients not receiving them. The present study was conducted to assess the effects of AMs over the 12 items of the SLICC Damage Index, (SDI). Methods Patients with a recent SLE diagnosis (≤2 years) from...

Background Achieving remission or low lupus disease activity state (LDAS) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients improves their prognosis in terms of damage accrual. But, there is not enough information about their impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of these analyses is to evaluate the association between remission or...

Background Although the survival rate of patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) has improved over the years, patients are frequently hospitalized or evaluated in the Emergency Room; these events account for most of the direct cost of these patients’ care. The objective of this study is to determine whether remission and low disease activi...

Background Serum uric acid levels have been reported as predictors of cardiovascular and renal morbidity(,¹ and, of increasing the risk of renal damage in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients(.² However, their role as predictors of global damage accrual in SLE patients has not been determined. Objectives To determine whether uric acid level...

Background Abdominal Obesity is highly prevalent in patients with RA and this condition is associated with adverse metabolic outcomes, but information about the impact of this condition in clinical activity disease is scarce, specially in our region Objectives To assess the association between central obesity with baseline clinical activity in a c...

Background The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex of interrelated risk factors for the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and it is now both a public health and a clinical problem(.¹ The MetS has also been reported to be associated with new organ damage, vascular events and mortality in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patient...

Objectives: To determine whether the CD4+CD28null T-cells subpopulation predicts the occurrence of damage in SLE. Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted in consecutive SLE patients seen every six months in our Rheumatology Department since 2012. Patients in whom CD4+CD28null T-cells had been measured and who had at least one subsequent v...

Background Rapid Radiographic Progression (RRP) in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients predicts long-term disability (1), high related economic costs (2) and loss of working time (3). Detection of RRP predictors as a necessary tool for aggressive therapeutic interventions has been proved, but in Latin-American cohorts, no available data had been rep...

Aims: To determine the factors predictive of disease activity early in the course of SLE (baseline visit). Methods: Patients from GLADEL, a multi-national, multi-ethnic, Latin-American lupus cohort were included. Disease activity was evaluated at baseline with the SLEDAI score. Demographic characteristics (age at diagnosis, gender, ethnicity, ma...

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the association of disease expression patterns with demographic and clinical characteristics in SLE. Methods Patients from a multi-ethnic SLE cohort were included. Disease expression patterns were defined as acute SLE and insidious SLE; this group was divided into those who accrued three ACR c...

Introduction: Due to improvements in our understanding of the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), several target drugs have been and are being developed. One of the possible targets in SLE is co-stimulation between antigen-presenting cells and T cells. Abatacept is a co-stimulation moderator approved for the treatment of several au...