[Metabolic syndrome after kidney transplantation].

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Higher risk of the metabolic syndrome and its components in patients after kidney transplantation is caused by immunosuppressive therapy. THE AIM OF OUR STUDY was to evaluate the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its components in kidney transplant recipients and to analyse their influence on allograft function and albuminuria.

Novel disposable biochip platform employing supercritical angle fluorescence for enhanced fluorescence collection.

This paper presents an overview of development of a novel disposable plastic biochip for multiplexed clinical diagnostic applications. The disposable biochip is manufactured using a low-cost, rapid turn- around injection moulding process and consists of nine parabolic elements on a planar substrate. The optical elements are based on supercritical angle fluorescence (SAF) which provides substantial enhancement of the fluorescence collection efficiency but also confines the fluorescence detection volume strictly to the immediate proximity of the biochip surface, thereby having the potential to discriminate against background fluorescence from the analyte solution.

Surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE)-based immunoassay using a novel paraboloid array biochip.

We have carried out a human IgG immunoassay on a novel disposable optical array biochip using surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) detection. The work successfully combines the advantages of the highly directional SPCE emission profile and enhanced surface plasmon excitation with the high light collection efficiency achieved using supercritical angle fluorescence (SAF). This is achieved using an array of transparent paraboloid polymer elements which have been coated with a thin gold layer to facilitate SPCE.

Experimental and theoretical evaluation of surface plasmon-coupled emission for sensitive fluorescence detection.

Surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) is a phenomenon whereby the light emitted from a fluorescent molecule can couple into the surface plasmon of an adjacent metal layer, resulting in highly directional emission in the region of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) angle. In addition to high directionality of emission, SPCE has the added advantage of surface selectivity in that the coupling diminishes with increasing distance from the surface. This effect can be exploited in bioassays whereby a fluorescing background from the sample can be suppressed.

[Nimesulide: a lower risk treatment in rheumatic diseases].

This review paper presents some basic information of a "rediscovered" nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Nimesulid which is one of the first selective inhibitors of cyclooxygenase-2, has a history of good clinical results, and is relatively well tolerated with patients. Nimesulid enhances possible ways of analgesia treatment of rheumatic diseases.

Efficacy and safety of 5% ibuprofen cream treatment in knee osteoarthritis. Results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of a cream containing 5% ibuprofen (Dolgit) cream) in primary knee osteoarthritis (OA) in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study using an adaptive sequential design.

Methods: Patients of both sexes aged 40-75 years, with a visual analog scale (VAS) score for pain on motion of >or= 40 mm, a Lequesne index score of 5-13, and a Kellgren-Lawrence radiographic score grade II-III were enrolled between January 2001 and July 2001. Study medication was applied in a 10-cm strip tid for 7 days on the more painful knee.

[Pharmacotherapy of pain in rheumatic disease].

The authors of this article discuss the pharmacotherapy of pain control in patients with rheumatic diseases, and they describe the relevant groups of drugs available, including their adverse events. They focus on non-steroidal antirheumatic drugs, selectice cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (coxibs) in particular. They summarise the experience with use of coxibs so far, and also report on drugs soon to be marketed in our country.

Gutta-percha: a look at the need for sterilization.

Many have argued that the prevention of contamination becomes a problem when gutta-percha cones are used to obturate the root canal space. This study evaluated the extent of contamination of commercially available gutta-percha cones taken directly from the manufacturer's box. Results show that if gutta-percha is not intentionally contaminated, there is no need for chemical decontamination before obturation.

[Cyclosporin A in the treatment of refractory rheumatoid arthritis].

Background: In the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis an irreplaceable position is held by so-called disease modifying drugs. Recently among the latter cyclosporin A was included. The objective of the present study was to assess its therapeutic effect in patients with rheumatoid arthritis refractory to treatment.

[Extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis].

The author gives an account of the incidence of extraarticular organ manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis. These manifestations cause deterioration of the prognosis of the disease and are evidence of the systemic character of rheumatoid arthritis, which cannot be conceived as an articular disease.

Combination therapy with hydroxychloroquine and methotrexate in rheumatoid arthritis.

The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) alone and in combination with methotrexate (MTX) in a randomized placebo-controlled study lasting 6 months. Forty patients with rheumatoid arthritis participated in the study and were randomly assigned to two groups--20 patients were treated with HCQ (200 mg daily) and placebo, 20 patients with HCQ and MTX (7.5 mg) once a week.

Evidence for the degradation of type XI collagen by bovine intervertebral disc- and articular cartilage extracts.

Bovine intervertebral disc- and articular cartilage extracts contain a metalloproteinase system capable of degrading type XI collagen. The collagen-degrading activity is rather low in unmodified extracts but increases considerably on metalloproteinase activation. The similarity between intervertebral disc and articular cartilage in their patterns of (casein-degrading) metalloproteinases and type XI and type II collagen degradation is believed to suggest a similarity in the events underlying the degradative disorders of articular cartilage and intervertebral disc.

Effect of Rumalon (glycosaminoglycan-peptide) on the articular tissue.

The effect of glycosaminoglycan-peptide complex (GPC) (Rumalon, made by Robapharm, Switzerland) on cells of the inflammatory periarticular infiltrate and on the articular chondrocytes was studied in experimentally induced papain arthropathy by means of image cytometry and biochemistry. The GPC therapy exhibited some antiinflammatory effect as documented by the reduction of DNA proliferative activity in the inflammatory infiltrate and lowered the activity of hydrolytic enzymes and enzyme inhibitors detected in chondrocytes.

[Pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis in 1992].

The author presents an overview of the state of pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis in 1992. In the area of non-steroidal antirheumatic drugs attention is drawn to some problems associated with their undesirable action on the digestive tract and articular cartilage. The problem of interindividual reactivity to this group of drugs has not been resolved so far.

Affinity chromatography of serine proteinases from the bovine intervertebral disc on BPTI-Separon HEMA 1000.

A method for the purification of serine proteinases from the bovine intervertebral disc using affinity chromatography on basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) immobilized to the hydroxyalkyl methacrylate copolymer Separon HEMA 1000 E is reported. Its advantage is the possibility of obtaining serine proteinases without an artificial alteration in relative molecular mass.

Effect of selected antirheumatic drugs on the metabolism of cartilage and synovial tissue in experimental arthropathy.

The effects of several antirheumatic drugs on the activity of degradative enzymes in normal and pathologic knee joint cartilage and on the proliferative activity of synovial tissue cells were studied. Inflammatory arthropathy was induced in rabbits by intraarticular papain administration. Elevated contents of proteoglycanase and collagenase, together with an increase in serine and cysteine proteinase inhibitors, were found in animals with papain-induced arthropathy.

[Indicators of articular cartilage degeneration in synovial fluid].

Detection of proteoglycans in biological fluids is a perspective method for the evaluation of the degree of catabolic processes in articular cartilage. The demand of accuracy and specificity of detection of substructures of the degradation products of the cartilaginous matrix, with the perspective of routine large scale examinations, restricts available possible methods practically only to the use of immunochemical methods. In the present investigation in the inhibitory ELISA test polyclonal antibodies with a double specificity in relation to basic structures of the cartilage--proteoglycans--were used.

Autoantibodies against histones and actin in patients with rheumatic diseases assessed by the western blot method.

Using the Western blot method, the authors analyzed 85 sera obtained from patients with rheumatic diseases, focused on the presence of antihistones and antiactin autoantibodies. The authors detected a 32% incidence of the two investigated autoantibody specificities. In a group of 42 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in 22 sera (52%) positive antihistone antibodies were present, whereby autoantibodies anti-H1 and anti-H2B were most frequent.

Agranulocytosis in a patient with primary Sjögren's syndrome.

The authors describe a case of primary Sjögren's syndrome, which was complicated with severe autoimmune agranulocytosis quite sensitive to immunosuppressive therapy. Agranulocytosis is a very rare complication of this autoimmune rheumatic disease as opposed to leucopenia. A remarkable feature of the presented case is the fact that correct diagnosis of primary Sjögren's syndrome has not been settled for almost 25 years.