Symptomatic efficacy of avocado/soybean unsaponifiables in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee and hip: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial with a six-month treatment period and a two-month followup demonstrating a persistent effect.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of avocado/soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) in the treatment of patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee or hip, as well as the potential residual effects of ASU after stopping treatment, to determine whether ASU might be a symptomatic slow-acting drug for the treatment of OA.

Methods: One hundred sixty-four patients with regular, painful, primary OA of the knee (n = 114) or hip (n = 50) entered a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicenter trial with a 6-month treatment period and a 2-month posttreatment followup. A 15-day washout period for nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) preceded the study.

How do French rheumatologists treat early rheumatoid arthritis?

Although factors that appear to predict long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis have been identified, there is no consensus about the treatment early in the disease. To determine how French office- and hospital-based rheumatologists treat early rheumatoid arthritis, we created three clinical vignettes corresponding to different levels of severity of early rheumatoid arthritis (less than six months' disease duration). Cases 1 and 2 were relatively young patients (35 and 50 years), and Case 1 had numerous poor prognosis factors.

Intravenous aminohydroxypropylidene bisphosphonate does not modify 99mTc-hydroxymethylene bisphosphonate bone scintigraphy. A prospective study.

Bisphosphonates have marked affinity for bone that makes them useful in both the treatment and imaging of bone lesions. Bone scintigraphy is very sensitive for the detection of bone metastases, which can cause life-threatening hypercalcemia requiring emergency treatment. This prospective study was done to determine whether intravenous administration of pamidronate, a second-generation bisphosphonate used to treat hypercalcemia, affects the affinity of the radiopharmaceutical 99m technetium-labeled hydroxymethylene bisphosphonate (99mTc-HMDP) for bone and bone lesions.

Severe lupus with infectious thyroiditis and lethal cardiomyopathy.

Clinical cardiomyopathy is an uncommon complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and intracavitary thrombosis is rare. We describe a patient with active SLE who developed rapidly progressive cardiomyopathy, the fatal course of which was complicated by an intracavitary thrombus. Repeat cardiac echography studies and the endomyocardial biopsy proved to be helpful in diagnosing the lupus myocarditis and aided the regulation of therapy.