Efficacy of sulfasalazine in patients with inflammatory back pain due to undifferentiated spondyloarthritis and early ankylosing spondylitis: a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: To assess the effect of sulfasalazine (SSZ) on inflammatory back pain (IBP) due to active undifferentiated spondyloarthritis (uSpA) or ankylosing spondylitis in patients with symptom duration <5 years.

Methods: Patients with IBP and a Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) >3 from 12 centres were randomly assigned to 24 weeks' treatment with SSZ 2 g/day or placebo. The primary outcome variable was the change in BASDAI over 6 months.

[Necrotizing keratitis in chronic polyarthritis. Combined immunosuppressive and surgical therapy].

Introduction: Areactive forms of keratitis in patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis are inflammations threatening the visual acuity and integrity of the eye. They commonly occur in a rheumatologically inactive interval and have a poor prognosis. A retrospective evaluation of medicamentous and surgical strategies for a curative therapy with optical rehabilitation is necessary to optimise the treatment of patients with necrotic sclerokeratitis.

Middle and long latency somatosensory evoked potentials after painful laser stimulation in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Ten female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FS) were investigated with laser evoked potentials (LEPs) after hand stimulations and compared with 10 female pain-free and age-matched control patients. FS patients exhibited significantly lower heat pain thresholds than controls (P < 0.05) and had higher amplitudes of LEP components N170 (P < 0.

[Combination therapy in chronic polyarthritis].

Long-term effects of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs are not at all satisfactory. Therefore combinations of different substances have long been studied. But no convincing recommendations could be derived from those results.

Treatment of psoriatic arthritis with auranofin and gold sodium thiomalate.

Forty-two patients with psoriatic arthritis were included in a multicenter, double-blind trial comparing auranofin and gold sodium thiomalate (GST) for 6 months, followed by a 6-month open treatment. Fifty-two percent of the patients on auranofin and 33% on GST were able to complete the 1-year course of therapy. As a result of the study we conclude that both gold compounds are effective agents in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis.