J Rheumatol
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To assess the reliability of the diagnosis given to rheumatic disease patients at the primary care level, the clinical records of 612 patients at the outpatient clinic of rheumatology of the main General Hospital in Alicante (Spain) were studied. ⋯ Our results highlight the need for upgrading courses in rheumatology for primary care physicians who have not been exposed to systematic training in rheumatology during their undergraduate studies. The epidemiological studies on rheumatic diseases based on primary care data should be interpreted with caution.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Meta Analysis Clinical Trial
The effect of pulsed electromagnetic fields in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee and cervical spine. Report of randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trials.
We conducted a randomized, double blind clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee and cervical spine. ⋯ PEMF has therapeutic benefit in painful OA of the knee or cervical spine.
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Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a musculoskeletal disorder characterized by generalized pain, localized tender points, chronic fatigue and nonrestorative sleep. Since sleep disturbances frequently occur in FMS and alpha intrusion in nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep probably associates with the nonrefreshing sleep, we prospectively studied the delta and alpha activity and alpha-delta ratio across sleep cycles, performing polysomnography in 10 patients with FMS and in 14 healthy control subjects. ⋯ Patients with FMS presented a high frequency of subjective sleep disturbances, an increased incidence of alpha EEG NREM sleep and clear abnormalities in sleep cycle organization.