Arthritis research & therapy
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Jul 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyResistance exercise improves physical fatigue in women with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial.
Fibromyalgia (FM) affects approximately 1-3 % of the general population. Fatigue limits the work ability and social life of patients with FM. A few studies of physical exercise have included measures of fatigue in FM, indicating that exercise can decrease fatigue levels. There is limited knowledge about the effects of resistance exercise on multiple dimensions of fatigue in FM. The present study is a sub-study of a multicenter randomized controlled trial in women with FM. The purpose of the present sub-study was to examine the effects of a person-centered progressive resistance exercise program on multiple dimensions of fatigue in women with FM, and to investigate predictors of the potential change in fatigue. ⋯ Person-centered progressive resistance exercise improved physical fatigue in women with FM when compared to an active control group.
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Jul 2016
Observational StudyFamilial Mediterranean fever is no longer a rare disease in Japan.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical manifestations and prevalence of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in Japanese patients with unexplained fever and rheumatic manifestations. ⋯ The high prevalence of FMF in Japanese patients with unexplained fever was confirmed in the present study. FMF should be suspected in cases of unexplained fever or non-specific rheumatic manifestations, and mutational analysis of MEFV could be useful to predict the clinical phenotypes of FMF in Japan.
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Jul 2016
Observational StudyIdentification of baseline gene expression signatures predicting therapeutic responses to three biologic agents in rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective observational study.
According to EULAR recommendations, biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs) such as tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, tocilizumab (TCZ), and abatacept (ABT) are in parallel when prescribing to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who have shown insufficient response to conventional synthetic DMARDs. However, most prediction studies of therapeutic response to bDMARDs using gene expression profiles were focused on a single bDMARD, and consideration of the results from the perspective of RA pathophysiology was insufficient. The aim of this study was to identify the specific molecular biological features predicting the therapeutic outcomes of three bDMARDs (infliximab [IFX], TCZ, and ABT) by studying blood gene expression signatures of patients before biologic treatment in a unified test platform. ⋯ We have identified original gene expression predictive signatures uniquely underlying the therapeutic effects of IFX, TCZ, and ABT. This is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to predict therapeutic effects of three drugs concomitantly using a unified gene expression test platform.
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Jun 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudySwitching from adalimumab to tofacitinib in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Tofacitinib is an oral Janus kinase inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to explore the safety and efficacy of open-label tofacitinib following blinded treatment with adalimumab or tofacitinib for moderate to severe RA. ⋯ Treatment can be directly switched from adalimumab to tofacitinib. A similar safety and efficacy profile was seen when patients received open-label tofacitinib after receiving either blinded adalimumab or tofacitinib.
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Arthritis Res. Ther. · Jun 2016
Concurrent validity of different functional and neuroproteomic pain assessment methods in the rat osteoarthritis monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) model.
Lack of validity in osteoarthritis pain models and assessment methods is suspected. Our goal was to 1) assess the repeatability and reproducibility of measurement and the influence of environment, and acclimatization, to different pain assessment outcomes in normal rats, and 2) test the concurrent validity of the most reliable methods in relation to the expression of different spinal neuropeptides in a chemical model of osteoarthritic pain. ⋯ This study of normal rats and rats with pain established the most reliable and sensitive pain assessment methods and an optimized acclimatization protocol. Operant PEAP testing was more responsive to lidocaine analgesia than other tests used, while neuropeptide spinal concentration is an objective quantification method attractive to support and validate different centralized pain functional assessment methods.