Rheumatoid Arthritis (Subscribe)  

The Educational Needs Assessment Tool (the ENAT) is a 39-item patient questionnaire originally developed in the UK to assess educational needs of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of this study was to assess the cross-cultural validity of the ENAT in 7 European countries.
Conclusion The ENAT is a simple tool,...

Introduction One aim of modern pharmacologic treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is to prevent joint destruction and reduce the need for surgery. Our purpose was to investigate secular trends in the incidence of primary total hip and knee arthroplasties in a well defined sample of patients with RA.
Conclusions Our investigation shows a...

Conclusions A combination of 2 questions ("tenderness to touch" and "difficulty sitting for 45 minutes") plus pain in the lower back, neck, hands and arms, may be useful in the construction of clinical questionnaires aimed at patients with musculoskeletal pain. This combination provided a correct diagnosis in 97% of subjects, with...

The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between suggested health promoting factors at baseline and outcome in HRQL at a 12 month follow-up in people with rheumatic diseases.
Conclusions This study identified several factors that promoted a good outcome in HRQL to people with rheumatic diseases. These health factors...

Case presentation We describe a 60-year-old Indian man with rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed 15 years ago who had minimal response to multiple therapies with disease-modifying agents and whose arthritis symptoms surprisingly remitted when he was started on a specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant, three years ago, for co-morbid major depression. This remission...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum biomarker levels of C2C, C1,2C, CS846, and CPII can predict the long-term course of disease activity and radiographic progression early in the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Conclusions The change in C1,2C in the first year after onset of RA has...

Clinical and x-ray images of hands, fingers and thumbs affected by rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis has many forms of presentation. This patient has bilateral severe radiocarpal and distal radioulnar joint involvement, with relative sparing of the metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints.

There are many methods to fuse interphalangeal joints. In this case, a Herbert screw was used for arthrodesis fixation of an unstable thumb interphalangeal joint. This case also demonstrates the eponychial splitting approach to the joint.

cerival spine involvement is common in Rheumatoid Arthritis (upto 90%) & is more common w/ long standing disease and multiple joint involvement; - significant subluxations will occur in about 32%

RA manifests itself in many ways in elbow joint, including nodules and bursae, synovitis, progressive joint destruction, antecubital cysts, & ulnar or, rarely posterior interosseous palsy; - note that involvement of the RA...

Discussion of the management of RA of the hip with references
Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics

Infections seeding implants are uncommon. In this case, a patient with rheumatoid arthritis and silastic metacarpophalangeal joint replacements developed infections of her implants associated with a calf abscess developing from a puncture wound of the sole of the foot. This patient had the implant surgery done elsewhere, and had done...

* early signs:
* fusiform periarticular soft tissue swelling (result of effusion)
* regional osteoporosis (disuse and local hyperemia)
* widened joint space
* marginal + central bone erosion (base of 4th proximal phalanx most common)
* change in ulnar styloid and distal radioulnar joint
* atlantoaxial dislocation
* giant synovial cysts
* late signs:
* flexion/extension...

Topics referred to include:-
- ARA criteria for RA
- pathogenesis
- differential diagnosis:
- spondyloarthropathies & related chronic seroneg arthritides;
- systemic...