OBJECTIVE To describe the outcome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) over 20 years from symptom onset, and to assess the association between early treatment (with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs/steroids) and mortality and disability during follow-up. METHODS Patients recruited to the Norfolk Arthritis Register (NOAR) between 1990 and 1994 who met the 2010 American College of Rh...

Objective To compare outcomes in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients initiating adalimumab (ADA), with short- and long-term disease duration and to evaluate the potential effect of concomitant conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD) or glucocorticoids. Methods Analyses included adult PsA patients registered in the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register (Reuma.pt) b...

In this paper, a novel gelatin-based hydrogel was synthesized through crosslinking graft copolymerization of methacrylic acid (MAA) onto gelatin, using ammonium persulfate (APS) as a free radical initiator in the presence of methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. A proposed mechanism for hydrogel formation was suggested and the structure of the product was established using FTIR spectro...

Polyelectrolyte hydrogels formed by xanthan gum and chitosan can be used for encapsulation and controlled release of food ingredients, cells, enzymes, and therapeutic agents. In this study, xanthan–chitosan microcapsules were formed by complex coacervation. The effects of initial polymer concentration and chitosan solution pH on the crosslinking density of xanthan–chitosan network were investig...

This article is also accessible online at: http://BioMedNet.com/karger Dear Sir, A recent study of corneal swelling by Aakre and Doughty [1] found two regimes in the time course of tissue fluid imbibition. We are pleased to note that this confirms our discovery made over 10 years ago at the University of New South Wales, Sydney [2, 3]. We first reported these results in 1986–1988 to meetings of...

OBJECTIVE Many types of treatment are available for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), however, some patients fail to achieve remission. This report aims to determine the safety and efficacy of using repository corticotropin injection (RCI) as an adjunctive therapy in patients with RA refractory to at least three therapeutics with different mechanisms of action. METHOD In this open-labe...

OBJECTIVE To describe probabilities and characteristics of disease flares in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and to identify clinical features associated with an increased risk of flare. METHODS We studied children in the Research in Arthritis in Canadian Children emphasizing Outcomes (ReACCh-Out) prospective inception cohort. A flare was defined as a recurrence of disease m...

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are infections that are spread primarily through person-to-person sexual contact. During the past two decades, STDs have undergone a dramatic transformation. First, the change in name from venereal diseases (V.D.) to sexually transmitted diseases (STD) indicates this transformation. The term “venereal” as it relates to disease dates back to 15th century. I...

Accepted 23 April 1998 The patient was a 39-year-old woman who, after a brisk movement of the head, noticed pain in the cervical region. Twenty hours later she began to have swelling of the left superior limb. She was treated with muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory agents with little improvement. Twenty days later the painless swelling persisted and she was admitted to the hospital. Physica...