Arthritis and rheumatism
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Arthritis and rheumatism · May 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialA 48-week, randomized, double-blind, double-observer, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of combination methotrexate and intramuscular gold therapy in rheumatoid arthritis: results of the METGO study.
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of adding intramuscular (IM) gold to the treatment regimen of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have a suboptimal response to methotrexate (MTX). ⋯ In RA patients with a suboptimal response to MTX, adding weekly IM gold causes significant clinical improvement. Adverse events were minor, and IM gold-related adverse events led to discontinuation in only 11% of the gold group over 48 weeks.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · May 2005
Knee height, knee pain, and knee osteoarthritis: the Beijing Osteoarthritis Study.
Few risk factors for knee osteoarthritis (OA) are appreciated, and the discordance between symptoms and the severity of structural disease has not been explained. Knee height contributes to moments around the knee. The longer the leg, the more torque is present. Although this would suggest that having long legs would be related to the occurrence of knee OA and pain, this issue has not been studied. Our aim was to explore the association between knee height, knee pain, and knee OA. ⋯ Knee height is associated with prevalent radiographic and symptomatic knee OA. It may also play an important role in knee symptoms. This study highlights the importance of mechanical forces in the determination of OA and knee symptoms.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · May 2005
Relationship of radiographic and clinical variables to pinch and grip strength among individuals with osteoarthritis.
Little is known about how specific radiographic features are related to hand strength in osteoarthritis (OA). This study examined associations of radiographic variables with pinch and grip strength among individuals with radiographic hand OA. ⋯ Among individuals with radiographic hand OA, increasing radiographic severity is associated with reduced grip and pinch strength, even when controlling for self-reported pain. Individuals with radiographic OA in specific locations (CMC joints, MCP joints, and ray 1) may be at particular risk for reduced hand strength.
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Arthritis and rheumatism · May 2005
The relationship between depression, clinical pain, and experimental pain in a chronic pain cohort.
Individuals with chronic pain frequently display comorbid depression, but the impact of symptoms of depression on pain processing is not completely understood. This study evaluated the effect of symptoms of depression and/or clinically diagnosed major depressive disorder (MDD) on pain processing in patients with fibromyalgia (FM). ⋯ In patients with FM, neither the extent of depression nor the presence of comorbid major depression modulates the sensory-discriminative aspects of pain processing (i.e., localizing pain and reporting its level of intensity), as measured by sensory testing or fMRI. However, depression is associated with the magnitude of neuronal activation in brain regions that process the affective-motivational dimension of pain. These data suggest that there are parallel, somewhat independent neural pain-processing networks for sensory and affective pain elements. The implication for treatment is that addressing an individual's depression (e.g., by prescribing an antidepressant medication that has no analgesic properties) will not necessarily have an impact on the sensory dimension of pain.