Effect of heated mittens on physical hand function in people with hand osteoarthritis: randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To assess the effect of electrically heated mittens on physical hand function in people with osteoarthritis of the hands compared with control mittens.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Osteoarthritis outpatient clinic, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Colchicine twice a day for hand osteoarthritis (COLOR): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Colchicine has been suggested for osteoarthritis treatment, but evidence is contradictory. We aimed to investigate colchicine's efficacy and safety compared with placebo in people with hand osteoarthritis.

Methods: In this single-centre, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial we recruited adults with symptomatic hand osteoarthritis and finger pain of at least 40 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale from an outpatient clinic in Denmark.

Weight Loss for Patients With Gout and Concomitant Obesity: A Proof-of-Concept Randomized Trial.

Objective: Despite scarce evidence, guidelines recommend weight loss as a management strategy for patients with gout. We investigated the effect of an intensive dietary intervention on body weight and clinical measures of gout severity in individuals with obesity and gout.

Methods: We conducted a 16-week randomized nonmasked parallel-group trial in Denmark, randomly assigning (one-to-one) individuals with obesity and gout to a low-energy diet or a control diet.

Turnover of strain-level diversity modulates functional traits in the honeybee gut microbiome between nurses and foragers.

Background: Strain-level diversity is widespread among bacterial species and can expand the functional potential of natural microbial communities. However, to what extent communities undergo consistent shifts in strain composition in response to environmental/host changes is less well understood.

Results: Here, we used shotgun metagenomics to compare the gut microbiota of two behavioral states of the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera), namely nurse and forager bees.

Comparative subgenomic mRNA profiles of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Delta and Omicron BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5 sub-lineages using Danish COVID-19 genomic surveillance data.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread worldwide in the population since it was first detected in late 2019. The transcription and replication of coronaviruses, although not fully understood, is characterised by the production of genomic length RNA and shorter subgenomic RNAs to make viral proteins and ultimately progeny virions. Observed levels of subgenomic RNAs differ between sub-lineages and open reading frames but their biological significance is presently unclear.

Deep Divergence and Genomic Diversification of Gut Symbionts of Neotropical Stingless Bees.

Social bees harbor conserved gut microbiotas that may have been acquired in a common ancestor of social bees and subsequently codiversified with their hosts. However, most of this knowledge is based on studies on the gut microbiotas of honey bees and bumblebees. Much less is known about the gut microbiotas of the third and most diverse group of social bees, the stingless bees.

Exercise and education vs intra-articular saline for knee osteoarthritis: a 1-year follow-up of a randomized trial.

Objective: To assess the longer-term effect of the Good Life with osteoarthritis in Denmark (GLAD) exercise and education program relative to open-label placebo (OLP) on changes from baseline in core outcomes in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: In this 1-year follow-up of an open-label, randomized trial, patients with symptomatic and radiographically confirmed knee OA were monitored after being randomized to either the 8-week GLAD program or OLP given as 4 intra-articular saline injections over 8 weeks. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score questionnaire (KOOS) pain subscale after 1 year in the intention-to-treat population.

Flare during tapering of biological DMARDs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in routine care: characteristics and predictors.

Objective: To identify predictors of flare in a 2-year follow-up study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in sustained clinical remission tapering towards withdrawal of biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs).

Methods: Sustained clinical remission was defined as Disease Activity Score for 28 joints (DAS28)-C reactive protein (CRP) ≤2.6 without radiographic progression for >1 year.

Four emerging immune cellular blood phenotypes associated with disease duration and activity established in Psoriatic Arthritis.

Background: Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) is an immune-mediated disease with heterogenous symptoms indicating differences in the underlying immunopathogenesis. The primary objective of the study explored the dynamic mechanisms and interplay between immune cell subtypes constituting the immune response driving PsA to evaluate possible differences in immune cellular phenotypes, and secondary examined associations between emerging immune cellular phenotypes and disease outcomes.

Methods: Peripheral blood was collected from 70 PsA patients.

Who are likely to benefit from the Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLAD) exercise and education program? An effect modifier analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To identify contextual factors that modify the treatment effect of the 'Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark' (GLAD) exercise and education programme compared to open-label placebo (OLP) on knee pain in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Secondary effect modifier analysis of a randomised controlled trial. 206 participants with symptomatic and radiographic knee OA were randomised to either the 8-week GLAD programme (n = 102) or OLP given as 4 intra-articular saline injections over 8 weeks (n = 104).

Effect of vaccination on household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of concern.

Effective vaccines protect individuals by not only reducing the susceptibility to infection, but also reducing the infectiousness of breakthrough infections in vaccinated cases. To disentangle the vaccine effectiveness against susceptibility to infection (VE) and vaccine effectiveness against infectiousness (VE), we took advantage of Danish national data comprising 24,693 households with a primary case of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Delta Variant of Concern, 2021) including 53,584 household contacts. In this setting, we estimated VE as 61% (95%-CI: 59-63), when the primary case was unvaccinated, and VE as 31% (95%-CI: 26-36), when the household contact was unvaccinated.

Multimodal imaging of the distal interphalangeal-joint synovio-entheseal complex in psoriatic arthritis (MIDAS): a cross-sectional study on the diagnostic accuracy of different imaging modalities comparing psoriatic arthritis to psoriasis and osteoarthritis.

Objective: Can ultrasound (US), MRI and X-ray applied to the distal interphalangeal (DIP)-joint and synovio-entheseal complex (SEC) discriminate between patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), skin psoriasis (PsO) and hand osteoarthritis (OA)?

Methods: In this prospective, cross-sectional study, patients with DIP-joint PsA and nail involvement (n=50), PsO with nail involvement (n=12); and OA (n=13); were consecutively recruited. Risk ratios (RR) were calculated for US, MRI and X-ray findings of the DIP-joint and SEC between diagnoses.

Results: New bone formation (NBF) in US and MRI was a hallmark of OA, reducing the risk of having PsA (RR 0.

Molecular epidemiology of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron BA.2 sub-lineage in Denmark, 29 November 2021 to 2 January 2022.

Following emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron in November 2021, the dominant BA.1 sub-lineage was replaced by the BA.2 sub-lineage in Denmark.

Exercise and education versus saline injections for knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled equivalence trial.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of an exercise and education programme with open-label placebo given as intra-articular injections of inert saline on pain and function in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: In this open-label, randomised controlled trial, we recruited adults aged ≥50 years with symptomatic and radiographically confirmed knee OA in Denmark. Participants were randomised 1:1 to undergo an 8-week exercise and education programme or four intra-articular saline injections over 8 weeks.

Novel application of optical coherence tomography and capillaroscopy in psoriatic arthritis in relationship to psoriasis and hand osteoarthritis.

Objectives: Nailfold video capillaroscopy (NVC) and angiographic optical coherence tomography (OCTA) have potential in diagnosing PsA and differentiating it from psoriasis vulgaris (PsO) and hand OA. We aimed to assess the diagnostic properties of NVC and OCTA in patients with PsA compared with patients with PsO and hand OA based on nailfold capillary patterns.

Methods: Patients with DIP joint PsA and nail involvement ( = 50), PsO with nail involvement ( = 12) and OA ( = 13) were included in this cross-sectional study.

Doppler ultrasound predicts successful discontinuation of biological DMARDs in rheumatoid arthritis patients in clinical remission.

Objective: To assess the ability of ultrasound to predict successful tapering and successful discontinuation of biological DMARDs (bDMARDs) at the 2-year follow-up in RA patients in sustained remission.

Methods: Patients in sustained remission (DAS28-CRP ≤ 2.6) and with no radiographic progression the previous year tapered bDMARDs according to a standardized regime.

Liraglutide after diet-induced weight loss for pain and weight control in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Weight loss is critical for preventing and managing obesity-related diseases. There is a notable lack of valid and reliable means to manage patients with overweight/obesity and knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

Objective: To determine the efficacy and safety of liraglutide in a 30 mg/d dosing in patients with overweight/obesity and KOA.

Exercise therapy and patient education versus intra-articular saline injections in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: an evidence-based protocol for an open-label randomised controlled trial (the DISCO trial).

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent musculoskeletal condition causing pain, physical disability, and reduced quality of life. Exercise and patient education are non-pharmacological interventions for knee OA unanimously recommended as first-line treatments based on extensive research evidence. However, none of the numerous randomised controlled trials of exercise and education for knee OA has used adequate sham/placebo comparison groups because the 'active' ingredients are unknown.

Vast Differences in Strain-Level Diversity in the Gut Microbiota of Two Closely Related Honey Bee Species.

Most bacterial species encompass strains with vastly different gene content. Strain diversity in microbial communities is therefore considered to be of functional importance. Yet little is known about the extent to which related microbial communities differ in diversity at this level and which underlying mechanisms may constrain and maintain strain-level diversity.

Reliability of the Copenhagen Achilles length measure (CALM) on patients with an Achilles tendon rupture.

Purpose: The primary objective was to examine the reliability of the Copenhagen Achilles length measure (CALM) in patients with an Achilles tendon rupture and secondary to examine the reliability of Achilles tendon resting angle (ATRA) and Achilles tendon length measure (ATLM).

Method: The study was executed as a cross-sectional study on two different groups: one focused on CALM and the other on ATRA/ATLM. CALM was performed on 56 patients at four timepoints during the first year after injury, whereas ATRA/ATLM were carried out on 28 patients.