BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis is characterised by inflammation and an increased cardiovascular risk. It was recently shown that active early rheumatoid arthritis is associated with dyslipidaemia, which may partially explain the enhanced cardiovascular risk. However, it is unknown when this dyslipidaemia starts. OBJECTIVE To investigate the progression of the lipid profile over time and the ...

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, in collaboration with Kissei Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is developing VX-702, one of a series of second-generation, orally active p38 MAP kinase inhibitors, for the potential treatment of inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular diseases. In June 2005, a phase II clinical trial of VX-702 was initiated in rheumatoid arthritis. In July 2006, Vertex was plannin...

background: rheumatoid arthritis (ra) is the most common chronic inflammatory erosive joint disease with the worldwide distribution of approximately 0.5-1%. molecular methods can be very sensitive in the early stage diagnosis of the disease and therefore prevention the late complications and disabilities. etiology of ra, an autoimmune disease, is not exactly known but immunologic and genetic fa...

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background: this preliminary study was conducted to discriminate the prevalence of acanthamoeba an­tibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (ra) patients and healthy controls to analyze the correlation between these two groups. methods: from october 2006 to august 2007 a total of 121 serum samples from ra patients attending the rheumatolgy department at shariati hospital in tehran were obtained and sto...

background: inappropriate activation or blockage of the inhibition of complement system could cause tissue damages in autoimmune diseases particularly rheumatoid arthritis (ra). defect in complement component regulation may cause damages to tissues, on the other hand, or the damaged tissue might affect the unnecessary activation of complement components.   objective: to investigate the expressi...

Background: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suffer from wide ranges of autoimmune reactions in joints. The mechanism of which is generally unknown and maybe associated with Treg deregulation. Objective: To compare the frequency of nTregs in peripheral blood of patients with active rheumatoid disease with healthy individuals. Methods: Twenty five newly diagnosed patients with active RA d...

Forty-six patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 22 receiving D-penicillamine and 2j alclofenac, took part in a 6-month single-bind external observer trial to compare the efficacy and toxicity of these drugs in the treatment of severe rheumatoid arthritis. Both drugs were active and similar in their efficacy at 6 months as judged by clinical and laboratory measurements. Penicillamine was active th...

OBJECTIVE To examine the possible beneficial effect of androgens in postmenopausal women with active rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS 107 women participated in a double blind placebo controlled trial to evaluate the effect of 50 mg testosterone propionate intramuscularly every two weeks for one year. RESULTS An improvement in ESR, Dutch health assessment questionnaire, and pain was noted. In a...