[Slow-acting anti-rheumatic agents: recent developments].

Until recently, treatment of osteoarthritis targeted the pain and the disability of the involved joints. It consisted in a mix of analgesics, anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid infiltrations and physical therapies. Usefulness of slow but long acting substances is increasing not only by their action on the symptoms but also because they positively influence the evolution of the disease.

[Chondrocalcinosis: a disease frequently occurring in the second half of life].

Articular chondrocalcinosis (ACC) is a metabolic arthropathy caused by calcium pyrophosphate crystal deposits. It is frequent in the second half of the life (6% of the population aged between 60 and 70 years, 30% of the elderly after 80 years). Both males and females, are involved in the same proportion.

Return-to-work status 1 year after muscle reconditioning in chronic low back pain patients.

Objective: To evaluate return-to-work status 1 year after a physical deconditioning program in manual laborers with chronic low back pain.

Methods: In this open prospective study, a questionnaire was sent to 125 patients and their physicians (115 men and 10 women, mean age 40 years). Mean sick leave duration at program initiation was 4 months.

The cervical spine in calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease. A prevalent case-control study.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) deposition disease is a risk factor for neck pain.

Methods: A prevalent case-control study was conducted to assess cervical calcifications and neck pain between patients with and without known peripheral CPPD deposition disease. CPPD cases were included if diagnosed with CPPD deposition disease of peripheral joints, and excluded if their chief complaint was neck pain.

Good outcomes of Lyme arthritis in 24 patients in an endemic area of Switzerland.

Objective: To describe outcomes of treated Lyme arthritis in an endemic area of western Switzerland, where some of the first cases of Lyme disease outside the United States were reported.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively studied 24 patients (15 males and nine females, mean age 38.7 years) managed by rheumatologists between 1994 and 1999 for Borrelia burgdorferi arthritis manifesting as monoarthritis (n = 20), oligoarthritis (n = 3), or polyarthritis (n = 1).

Contribution of digit joint aspiration to the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases.

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic usefulness of digit joint aspiration in patients with involvement of one or more digit joints.

Patients And Methods: All patients who underwent digit joint aspiration during a rheumatology outpatient visit between 1994 and 1998 were included. Fine needles (25 or 28 G) were used, and the aspirate was immediately examined under the microscope to determine the leukocyte count and to look for crystals under polarized light.