OBJECTIVE To determine the range and activity of the clinical and biological features of patients aged <40 with Paget's disease of bone. METHODS A retrospective two centre study of 314 patients with Paget's disease of bone from two university hospitals. The disease was diagnosed by radiological, serum alkaline phosphatase (AP) levels, or clinical features, and bone scintigraphy in most patien...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate clinical response by baseline disease duration using 2-year data from the AMPLE trial. METHODS Patients were randomised to subcutaneous abatacept 125 mg weekly or adalimumab 40 mg bi-weekly, with background methotrexate. As part of a post hoc analysis, the achievement of validated definitions of remission (Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) ≤2.8, Simplified Disease ...

Arthroscopic and histological synovial features have been studied in forty-two patients with classical or definite rheumatoid arthritis. A total index of disease activity as judged arthroscopically correlates significantly with a total index of histological activity. In those patients who have dense, waxy looking villi, the intensity of the villus-proliferation is associated with lymphocytic in...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether depressive symptoms assessed in treated patients with early inflammatory polyarthritis (EPA) influence disease activity during follow-up. METHODS Consecutively recruited EPA patients were actively treated to remission. Simple disease activity index (SDAI) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) scores were calculated at inclusion and up to ...

Composite indices or pooled indices are useful tools for the evaluation of disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They allow the integration of various aspects of the disease into a single numerical value, and may therefore facilitate consistent patient care and improve patient compliance, which both can lead to improved outcomes. The Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDA...

The ability of 11 laboratory parameters to reflect the degree of activity of Crohn's disease, using a clinical index as reference point was compared by means of multiple stepwise regression analysis. Activity was best defined in decreasing order by orosomucoid, sedimentation rate, C reactive protein, alpha-1-antitrypsin, albumin, haematocrit, IgM, circulating immune complexes, serum iron, IgG, ...

We reported a procedure of serum anticholinergic activity (SAA) measurement and the reliability and reproducibility of the receptor binding assay, and we also described the usefulness of SAA measurement reflecting the anticholinergic activity (AA) in the central nervous system (CNS). According to the results of a 10 times repeated measurement of standard atropine binding, the relative error was...