Short term palindromic rheumatism after clopidogrel use.

T he European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) is currently a partnership organisation of 43 national scientific societies and 30 national social leagues (www.eular.org). It fosters excellence in education and research, which can be translated into better treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation for patients with rheumatic diseases. EULAR had a strong year in 2005 and hopes for even more growth in 2006. The major event was, of course, the EULAR congress in Vienna, which gathered nearly 10 000 attendants from 99 different countries. All delegates to the congress receive a free 1 year’s subscription to the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (the EULAR journal), which has become one of the leading scientific journals in rheumatology. In the past 6 years the print circulation of the journal has increased from 1800 (in 1999) to about 10 000 (in 2005), submissions have tripled, and the impact factor has more than doubled, being close to 4 in 2005. In April, the EULAR secretariat moved into ‘‘the EULAR house’’ in Kilchberg, a few minutes drive outside the Zurich city centre. This house also provides facilities for committee meetings of up to about 40 people and has already proved to be a good facility for such events. One of EULAR’s major objectives is to improve the awareness of rheumatic diseases in Europe, with a particular focus on the political level. Some progress in this objective was achieved in 2005. A written declaration, presented by the European Parliament in July, was signed by 406 members of the Parliament (http://www.europarl.eu.int/ activities/expert/ writtenDecl.do?YEAR_VAL=2005 (p. 4, accessed 14 November 2005). This result was reached after a strong and important collaboration between the patient representatives in EULAR and rheumatologists, health professionals, and scientists. A large number of people contributed to the lobbying by EULAR in Brussels, Strasbourg, and at home in their respective countries. This declaration calls on the Commission and Council to: