Annals of the rheumatic diseases
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Morbidity and mortality in the antiphospholipid syndrome during a 10-year period: a multicentre prospective study of 1000 patients.
To assess the prevalence of the main causes of morbi-mortality in the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) during a 10-year-follow-up period and to compare the frequency of early manifestations with those that appeared later. ⋯ Patients with APS still develop significant morbidity and mortality despite current treatment. It is imperative to increase the efforts in determining optimal prognostic markers and therapeutic measures to prevent these complications.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A randomised trial of a brace for patellofemoral osteoarthritis targeting knee pain and bone marrow lesions.
Braces used to treat (PF) osteoarthritis (OA) may reduce contact stress across the PF joint. We hypothesised that in PF OA, braces would decrease knee pain and shrink PF bone marrow lesions (BMLs). ⋯ A PF brace reduces BML volume in the targeted compartment of the knee, and relieves knee pain.
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To estimate the risk of tuberculosis (TB) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) both with and without exposure to biological therapy and to directly compare the risks between therapies. ⋯ In the past decade, the risk of TB has decreased among biological-exposed RA patients but remains higher than in biological-naïve RA patients. Most cases of TB in RA occur in biological-naïve RA patients, underscoring the elevated risk also in these patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Glucosamine and chondroitin for knee osteoarthritis: a double-blind randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating single and combination regimens.
To determine if the dietary supplements, glucosamine and/or chondroitin, result in reduced joint space narrowing (JSN) and pain among people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. ⋯ Allocation to the glucosamine-chondroitin combination resulted in a statistically significant reduction in JSN at 2 years. While all allocation groups demonstrated reduced knee pain over the study period, none of the treatment allocation groups demonstrated significant symptomatic benefit above placebo.
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Bone erosion is one of the hallmarks of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but also seen in other rheumatic diseases. The objective of this study was to determine the specificity of ultrasound (US)-detected bone erosions (including their size) in the classical 'target' joints for RA. ⋯ The presence of US-detected erosions is not specific for RA. However, larger erosions in selected joints, especially 2nd and 5rd MCP, 5th MTP joints and distal ulna, were highly specific for and predictive of RA.