Arthritis and rheumatism
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2003
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialMagnetic resonance imaging examinations of the spine in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, before and after successful therapy with infliximab: evaluation of a new scoring system.
To evaluate a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scoring system for the assessment of spinal inflammation in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of infliximab, and to examine whether infliximab is also effective for the reduction of MRI-proven spinal inflammation. ⋯ This novel MRI scoring system performed well in assessing acute inflammation by using STIR and post-Gd-DTPA sequences. In correlation with clinical improvement in patients with active AS who were treated with infliximab, significant regression of spinal inflammation was shown by using the MRI activity scores.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · Apr 2003
Comparative StudyLower prevalence of hand osteoarthritis among Chinese subjects in Beijing compared with white subjects in the United States: the Beijing Osteoarthritis Study.
Fewer Chinese subjects in Beijing have hip osteoarthritis (OA) compared with whites in the United States, but as many or more Chinese subjects have knee OA. If these differences are due to a systemic predilection for disease, then the prevalence of hand OA, the best indicator of generalized disease, should be different in China. The goals of this study were to estimate the prevalence of hand OA among elderly Chinese in Beijing, and to compare it with that among elderly whites in the United States. ⋯ Elderly Chinese subjects in Beijing had a much lower prevalence of hand OA than did elderly whites in Framingham, Massachusetts. Coupled with the exceedingly low prevalence of hip OA in China, these results may suggest that the overall predilection for OA is less among subjects in China than among whites in the United States.