Researchers who said they discovered a new disease akin to rheumatoid arthritis, but caused by pollution, are standing by their claim despite the retraction of their paper last month.
The article, “Middle east pain syndrome is a pollution-induced new disease mimicking rheumatoid arthritis,” appeared in the Springer Nature journal Scientific Reports in November 2021. The paper has been cited once, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science, and received limited press coverage.
According to the retraction notice, “post-publication peer review by an expert has confirmed the validity” of multiple concerns raised about the study. The paper did not present data to support its claims about the presumed cause for the syndrome, didn’t “conclusively” prove that MEPS is a new disease, and the bone erosions the study claimed were a hallmark of the disease weren’t backed by scans, the notice stated. Also, a figure of the paper featured a radiograph of a patient that wasn’t part of the study.
“The Editors therefore no longer have confidence in the conclusions of this study,” the notice states.
Rafal Marszalek, the editor-in-chief of the journal, told Retraction Watch the concerns were raised by a reader. After post-publication peer review by an expert “confirmed these concerns and that they substantially impact the conclusions of the article,” it was retracted.
The lead author of the paper, Adel A. Elbeialy, a rheumatologist at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, disagreed with the retraction. He told us the journal did not respond to his objections.
In an email to Anam Akhtar, a deputy editor of Scientific Reports, Elbeialy called the decision “hurried.”
In other communications with the journal seen by Retraction Watch, Elbeialy disputed the retraction, saying the findings would be supported in future research. “Some of these papers will reach your eminent journal soon,” he said.
Elbeialy admitted that one of the figures was from a patient not included in the study, but said the authors decided to include it because of its “high resolution and suitability for printing.”
In his email to Akhtar, Elbeialy compared MEPS to COVID-19 “and its sequelae, we have to wait for other researches that explain the pathogenesis, criteria for diagnosis and proper treatment.” He also noted that rheumatoid arthritis, which the retracted paper claims is similar to Middle East Pain Syndrome, “was not understood fully from a single paper when described by Augustin Jacob Landré-Beauvais in the year 1800.”
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Regarding the radiographs that were acknowledged by the author not to represent a patient of the study, it was described as, “Plain X ray hand PA view shows mild subperiosteal bone resorption affecting radial aspects of the proximal and middle phalanges of the 2nd and 3rd fingers, terminal tuft erosions (acro-osteolysis), as well as spur-like excrescences.” There were other references to this in the text.
I think this acknowledged misrepresentation of data alone is sufficient for an article to be retracted.