Rheumatology

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Edinburgh, has discovered three genes linked to the development of Paget's Disease.

A combination of antibiotics effectively treats Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis, according to results of a study conducted by researchers from the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine.

Dr. Pullen outlines a number of suggestions physicians can use for maintaining personal interaction with patients while using an EMR in the room.

The aging process is difficult, involving multisystem functional decline, and the pharmacokinetics of medications are altered in older persons, resulting in increased risks. Concerns are demonstrated in case reports.

Although the adage that there is no privacy on the Internet is truer than ever, there are several steps that physicians can take to protect their private lives and information while still remaining active online.

ABSTRACT: Achilles tendon injuries are increasing as the population ages yet remains physically active later in life. Early diagnosis and management are important for good long-term outcome, but many injuries are missed or misdiagnosed on initial evaluation.

Good news doctors! Although the current Congress is content to fritter away your future income with so-called healthcare reform, a plucky Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada has offered a sensible (and tasty) alternative to the usual fee for service: poultry!

Remission must be the ultimate therapeutic goal for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to an international task force that set out to develop recommendations for achieving optimal outcomes in RA in clinical practice. Treatment targets have helped improve outcomes in other areas of medicine (eg, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension), the investigators noted, but treatment targets had not been defined for RA, even in light of major treatment changes in recent years (see Box, “Sea change in RA treatment,” below). Therefore, using evidence obtained from a systematic literature review and expert opinion, they formulated a consensus finding that resulted in 10 recommendations for treatment to target in RA.

According to the results of a study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital, patients with acne who complete a follow-up visit via a secure website may achieve similar clinical outcomes as patients who receive in-person visits.

Are you a PC? Then you may be excited to know that Microsoft Office 2010 is set to hit the shelves this June, bringing with it a slew of enhanced programs and new apps to keep you better connected, productive, and creative.

The deleterious effects of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on employment and productivity are clearly associated with a burden on the US economy. However, RA also has significant “social costs” for both employed and unemployed persons.

Proprioceptive and neuromuscular training help reduce the incidence of some types of injuries among adolescent and young adult athletes participating in sports that involve pivoting. Balance exercises and multi-interventional training programs (balance plus strength and flexibility maneuvers) may be particularly effective in preventing basketball, soccer, handball, and floorball injuries.

For patients who have ankylosing spondylitis (AS), radiographic assessment of the sacroiliac joint with MRI is the cornerstone of evaluation and treatment. Erosions alone-rather than bone marrow edema or contrast medium enhancement-are the most disease-specific measurable imaging findings in sacroiliac MRI of patients with AS in clinical practice.

There is a small absolute risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) in patients who receive statin therapy, but that risk is easily outweighed by the benefit that statins provide in reducing cardiovascular (CV) events. Therefore, clinical practice does not need to change for patients with moderate or high CV risk or existing CV disease.

Microvascular dysfunction correlates with systemic inflammation, which plays a key role in cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In patients who have active RA, microvascular dysfunction improves in those who respond to antirheumatic treatment; aggressive control of RA disease activity helps avoid further joint damage and disability and may reduce CVD risk.

Whether you're traveling to a medical conference or planning your next vacation, these 10 travel apps for your iPhone are sure to come in handy.

Scientists have discovered new methods for measuring biological markers in the blood, which can be used according to diagnose osteoarthritis earlier, according to a public release from King's College London's Department if Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology.

A new study from the Center for Studying Health System Change analyzes the positive and negative affects that EMR implementation can have on physician-patient interaction.

Dr. Edward Pullen examines the ways in which Earth Day and going green can relate to medicine.

Martial arts fall training may help osteoporosis patients as long as appropriate safety measures are taken, according to study results published in the open access journal BMC Research Notes.

Is there middle ground when healthcare errors are made?

African American and Hispanic patients with arthritis experience a greater burden from their disease, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, published in Preventing Chronic Disease.

Some health care IT industry heavyweights have gone so far as to suggest that the iPad will be greatly utilized in the healthcare setting and revolutionize the way we do business. While I do think the iPad is incredibly shiny and is great computer replacement for your grandma, I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to suggest that it will ever be fully adopted by healthcare IT shops.

Results were printed in the journal Immunity and illustrate that in patients suffering from RA the pathway fails to work properly as it would in healthy patients.

Modern medicine's technological advances now allow more people to live long enough to develop chronic diseases where the mortality is low but the morbidity high. Hyperchondriacs are acutely aware of this, and perceive great threats in their aging and the future. Hyperchondriacs have similar attributes to hypochondrial patients even as they lack the attendant "symptoms" of a physiologic illness.

Google has just completed a major overhaul of Google Docs that includes redesigned spreadsheet, document, and drawing editors; group chat functionality; and the ability to collaborate with real-time character-by-character mark-up.

A nice surprise buried somewhere in the healthcare reform bill is that, starting next year, Medicare patients will be able to get annual preventative care exams that are paid for by their health insurance.

Researchers at Stony Brook University received a $606,000 grant to continue studying a telephone-based program designed to help arthritis patients maintain better control of their pain.

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is not a novel entity-there has been interest in unexplained pain syndromes since antiquity (Figure 1). The earliest research focused on the symptom of “muscle hardenings,” which may be the equivalent of musculoskeletal symptoms that patients with FMS describe today.

Throughout history, various forms of morphine have been the most effective medications in relieving pain. Opioid analgesics-the natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic derivatives of morphine-are used routinely in the management of acute musculoskeletal pain. However, myths and misunderstandings about these drugs often prevent primary care physicians from prescribing them for chronic pain, such as that seen in common musculoskeletal conditions (eg, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis [OA], osteoporosis, and low back pain [LBP]). Although pain is one of the most common symptoms that bring patients to the physician’s office, those with chronic musculoskeletal or other noncancer pain all too often are undertreated.