Abstract
Guidelines or recommendations help to provide uniform standards in medical practice. The development of guidelines requires adherence to pre-defined norms prescribed by different international organizations such as the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR). We searched Pubmed and LILACS to identify published papers in five major rheumatic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, spondyloarthropathies, osteoarthritis, and scleroderma) from different countries based on their economic prosperity and could find a lack of published literature from most economically weaker regions. Similarly, published guidelines in these rheumatic diseases were sparse from Asia and Africa, which are economically developed to a lesser extent than other regions of the world. Considering differing economic realities driving patient care in different regions of the world, unique challenges in certain geographic areas such as musculoskeletal manifestations of infectious diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis, as well as distinct risk of malignancies and other comorbid conditions, National Rheumatology societies should work towards developing more guidelines for rheumatic diseases from regions such as Asia and Africa, while following strictly the prescribed norms for the same. With a paucity of guidelines for such regions currently, an alternative (although less preferable) suggestion would be that major international societies, whose guidelines are widely read and followed the world over, should consider inputs from experts from diverse regions of the world while developing these guidelines.
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Abbreviations
- ACR:
-
American College of Rheumatology
- AGREE:
-
Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation
- ALNN:
-
Asian Lupus Nephritis Network
- APLAR:
-
Asia Pacific League against Rheumatism
- bDMARDs:
-
Biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs
- cDMARDS:
-
Conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs
- CNI:
-
Calcineurin inhibitors
- ERA–EDTA:
-
European Renal Association–European Dialysis and Transplant Association
- EULAR:
-
European League against Rheumatism
- GRADE:
-
Grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluations
- GRADEpro:
-
GRADE profiler
- GDP:
-
Gross domestic product
- GNI:
-
Gross national income
- LILACS:
-
Literatura Latino Americana em Ciências da Saúde
- NICE:
-
National Institute of Clinical Excellence
- PADI:
-
Peptidyl arginine deiminase
- PICO:
-
Patient intervention comparator outcome
- PRISMA:
-
Preferred reporting standards for systematic reviews and meta-analysis
- PTPN22:
-
Protein tyrosine phosphatase 22
- SOP:
-
Standard operating procedure
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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The conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data—DPM, AS, VA. Drafting the article—DPM; revising it critically for important intellectual content—AS, VA. Final approval of the version to be submitted—DPM, AS, VA. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved—DPM, AS, VA.
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Durga Prasanna Misra declares that he has no conflict of interest, including no relationship with pharmaceutical companies. Aman Sharma declares that he has no conflict of interest, including no relationship with pharmaceutical companies. Vikas Agarwal declares that he has no conflict of interest, including no relationship with pharmaceutical companies.
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Misra, D.P., Sharma, A. & Agarwal, V. Guidelines for management of rheumatic diseases in developing countries from basics to real-world situation: relevance, need, and processes for development. Rheumatol Int 38, 549–556 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-018-3996-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-018-3996-2