Impact of falling reimbursement rates on physician preferences regarding drug therapy for osteoarthritis using a discrete choice experiment.

Objectives: In the European context of falling reimbursement rates for some osteoarthritis (OA) treatments, we performed a study to determine whether the cost covered by patients influenced the decisions of their physicians' prescriptions for medication.

Methods: The study involved 106 general practitioners (GPs) and 82 rheumatologists. Preferences were elicited using a discrete choice experiment.

Characterization of knee osteoarthritis in Latin America. A comparative analysis of clinical and health care utilization in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Background: The burden of knee osteoarthritis (OA) in Latin America is unknown.

Objective: To determine the demographic, clinical, and therapeutic characteristics of patients with OA in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Material And Methods: This is an observational, cross-sectional study of patients with symptomatic knee OA referred from first care medical centers to Rheumatology departments.

Randomised, controlled trial of avocado-soybean unsaponifiable (Piascledine) effect on structure modification in hip osteoarthritis: the ERADIAS study.

Objective: To assess the ability of avocado-soybean unsaponifiable-Expanscience (ASU-E) to slow radiographic progression in symptomatic hip osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Prospective, randomised, double blind, parallel group, placebo controlled 3 year trial. Patients with symptomatic (painful ≥1 year, Lequesne Index between 3 and 10) hip OA (American College of Rheumatology criteria) and a minimum joint space width (JSW) of the target hip between 1 and 4 mm on a pelvic radiograph were randomly assigned to 300 mg/day ASU-E or placebo.

OARSI-OMERACT initiative: defining thresholds for symptomatic severity and structural changes in disease modifying osteoarthritis drug (DMOAD) clinical trials.

Objective: Total joint replacement has been proposed as an endpoint in disease modifying osteoarthritis drug (DMOAD) randomized clinical trials (RCTs); however, disparities have generated concerns regarding this outcome. A combined Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI)/Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) initiative was launched in 2004 to develop a composite index ['virtual total joint replacement' (VJR)] as a surrogate outcome for osteoarthritis (OA) progression in DMOAD RCTs. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence of patients fulfilling different thresholds of sustained pain, reduced function, and X-ray change in existing DMOAD RCTs.