Clinical therapeutics
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Clinical therapeutics · Feb 2017
Factors Associated with the Use of Hyaluronic Acid and Corticosteroid Injections among Patients with Radiographically Confirmed Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Data Analysis.
Despite the rapid proliferation of hyaluronate (HA) and corticosteroid (CO) injections and clinical guidelines regarding their use in osteoarthritis (OA), information on the characteristics of people receiving these injections is scarce. We describe the use of injections among adults with radiographically confirmed knee OA and identify factors associated with injection use. ⋯ The receipt of HA or CO injection may be associated with higher socioeconomic positioning and indicators of greater disease severity in patients with knee OA.
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Clinical therapeutics · Feb 2017
Target Intestinal Microbiota to Alleviate Disease Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Emerging evidence has demonstrated that gut microbiome plays essential roles in the pathogenesis of human diseases in distal organs. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons. Treatment with the only drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in ALS, riluzole, extends a patient׳s life span by only a few months. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel interventions that for alleviate disease progression and improve quality of life in patients with ALS. Here we present evidence that intestinal dysfunction and dysbiosis may actively contribute to ALS pathophysiology. ⋯ The findings from this study highlight the complex role of the gut microbiome and intestinal epithelium in the progression of ALS and present butyrate as a potential therapeutic reagent for restoring ALS-related dysbiosis.