Arthritis and rheumatism
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe effect of estrogen plus progestin on knee symptoms and related disability in postmenopausal women: The Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Most observational studies suggest that postmenopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy have a reduced risk of radiographic knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA). There are no randomized trial data on the association of hormone treatment with knee or hip OA, and no studies have been published regarding the relationship of hormone treatment to knee or hip symptoms. This study examined the association of hormone treatment with prevalent knee symptoms and disability related to knee pain as assessed at the final visit of the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS). ⋯ In a group of older, postmenopausal women with cardiac disease, we found no significant effect of 4 years of estrogen plus progestin therapy compared with placebo on knee pain and related disability. Our findings may not apply to other groups of women or to the effect of hormone therapy on the structural changes of knee OA.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2001
Features of somatization predict the onset of chronic widespread pain: results of a large population-based study.
Chronic widespread pain, the clinical hallmark of the fibromyalgia syndrome, is associated with other physical and psychological symptoms both in patients studied in a clinical setting and in those identified in the community. The present study was undertaken to examine the hypothesis that psychological and physical indicators of the process of somatization predict the development of new chronic widespread pain. ⋯ Subjects who are free of chronic widespread pain are at increased future risk of its development if they display other aspects of the process of somatization. Data from this population-based prospective study lend powerful support to the hypothesis that chronic widespread pain can be one manifestation of the somatization of distress.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2001
An English and Spanish quality of life measure for rheumatoid arthritis.
To develop a rheumatoid arthritis-specific health-related quality of life instrument, translate the English instrument into Spanish, and test the scaling assumptions, reliability, validity, and feasibility of both the English and Spanish versions. ⋯ The QOL-RA Scale, in both English and Spanish versions, appears to meet the assumptions of a summated rating scale and the criteria of relevance, reliability, validity, feasibility, and adaptability to several languages.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2001
Implication of cartilage intermediate layer protein in cartilage destruction in subsets of patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
To investigate whether cartilage intermediate layer protein (CILP), a protein recently cloned from human articular cartilage, is recognized as an autoantigen in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and whether the immune response against CILP is involved in disease pathogenesis. ⋯ The immune response to CILP may play a role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory joint destruction. Our results support the role of an immune-mediated process in the joint destruction present in chronic arthropathies such as OA and RA. The results suggest that suppression of immune responses to various components of the cartilage, such as CILP, might be therapeutically beneficial in these chronic arthropathies.