Arthritis care & research
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To assess experimental pain sensitivity and compare the inflammatory response to pain in 26 osteoarthritis (OA) patients and 33 age- and sex-matched controls from the general population in order to examine the nature of the association between pain and inflammation in OA. ⋯ Compared with controls, OA patients are more sensitive to experimental pain at multiple body sites. IL-6 levels in OA patients and controls exhibited reactivity to acute painful stimuli, increasing at similar rates after psychophysical pain testing.
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Arthritis care & research · Mar 2011
Impact of hallux valgus severity on general and foot-specific health-related quality of life.
To explore the prevalence of and factors associated with hallux valgus and to assess the impact of hallux valgus severity on general and foot-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in older people. ⋯ There is a progressive reduction in both general and foot-specific HRQOL with increasing severity of hallux valgus deformity.
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Arthritis care & research · Mar 2011
Distal extremity pain as a presenting feature of Fabry's disease.
Fabry's disease (FD) is an X-linked lysosomal storage disease. Distal extremity pain can be an early finding and renal, cardiac, and cerebrovascular complications may lead to complications and mortality. Treatment is now available for these patients, who may not be diagnosed correctly for years if the neuropathic nature of the pain is not recognized. The aim of our study was to describe early clinical features in a cohort of patients with FD and to emphasize the importance of distal extremity pain for early diagnosis. ⋯ Clinical manifestations of FD, including episodes of severe pain in the feet and hands, often start in childhood. Distal extremity pain may be the only symptom for a considerable period of time. Patients may be wrongly labeled as having rheumatologic conditions, resulting in long diagnostic and therapeutic delays. Rheumatologists should be aware of the clinical aspects of FD and include it in the differential diagnosis of distal extremity pain in childhood and adolescence.
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Arthritis care & research · Mar 2011
Intentional and unintentional treatment nonadherence in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
Patients may be defined as nonadherent if they do not take their medications as prescribed by their physicians. Determinants of nonadherence may vary between and within patient groups. This study investigated the extent to which patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) show intentional and unintentional nonadherence, and the associations of nonadherence with psychological and medical parameters. ⋯ Although SLE patients reported high levels of adherence on average, they commonly reported intentional and unintentional nonadherence. Adherence was associated with both cognitions and emotions. Nonadherence may be reduced by targeting emotional and cognitive functioning and by fine tuning doctor-patient communication to address patients' individual concerns about their medications.
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Arthritis care & research · Feb 2011
"It's there and I'm stuck with it": patients' experiences of chronic pain following total knee replacement surgery.
To gain insight into patients' experiences of adjustment to chronic pain following recovery from total knee replacement (TKR) surgery. ⋯ The data suggest that adjustment to chronic pain following recovery from TKR surgery is influenced by biomedical and psychosocial factors, including an individual's pain-related illness cognitions, beliefs, and their perceptions of their condition in a social context. Patient care could be improved by clinicians utilizing a biopsychosocial framework to acknowledge the impact of osteoarthritis of the knee as a multidimensional health condition.