Individual therapeutic DAS28-d responses differentiate between effectiveness of rheumatoid arthritis therapies and reflect patient-reported outcomes: retrospective analysis of DAS28 responses in comparative tocilizumab studies.

Assessment of individual therapeutic responses provides valuable information concerning treatment benefits in individual patients. We evaluated individual therapeutic responses as determined by the Disease Activity Score-28 joints critical difference for improvement (DAS28-d) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with intravenous tocilizumab or comparator anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents. The previously published DAS28-d value [DAS28 decrease (improvement) ≥ 1.

Five-year Efficacy and Safety of Tocilizumab Monotherapy in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Who Were Methotrexate- and Biologic-naive or Free of Methotrexate for 6 Months: the AMBITION Study.

Objective: To report on the 5-year efficacy and safety results of the AMBITION (Actemra versus Methotrexate double-Blind Investigative Trial In mONotherapy) monotherapy study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00109408, NCT00720798).

Methods: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis for whom biologics had not failed or who did not discontinue methotrexate because of lack of efficacy or tolerability were followed up for 5 years to assess the efficacy and serious adverse events (SAE) of tocilizumab (TCZ) monotherapy.

The effects of intravaginal clindamycin and metronidazole therapy on vaginal mobiluncus morphotypes in patients with bacterial vaginosis.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the effects of treatments for bacterial vaginosis (BV) on vaginal Mobiluncus morphotypes.

Study Design: Analyses were performed on Mobiluncus scores from similarly conducted studies evaluating clindamycin vaginal single-dose cream (CVSDC) or metronidazole vaginal gel (MVG) in 55 patients with BV and with Mobiluncus morphotypes at baseline.

Results: Both treatment groups demonstrated significant reductions in Mobiluncus score.

The effects of intravaginal clindamycin and metronidazole therapy on vaginal lactobacilli in patients with bacterial vaginosis.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of 3 intravaginal antibacterial treatments on vaginal lactobacilli in patients with bacterial vaginosis (BV).

Study Design: Retrospective analyses were performed on Lactobacillus scores from 3 similar studies evaluating 2 2% clindamycin vaginal creams and 0.75% metronidazole gel at baseline and at 21 to 30 days in 408 patients with BV.

The influence of immunomodulatory diets on transplant success and complications.

Background: Animal studies have shown that dietary supplementation with arginine and lipids containing the omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids prolong allograft survival in animals receiving a short course of low-dose cyclosporine. They also reduce cardiovascular complications and infections in humans.

Methods: Adult renal transplant patients receiving standard immunosuppression were stratified according to gender, diabetic state, donor source (LD or CD), and first versus repeat transplant, and randomized to receive or not receive supplemental arginine and canola oil (containing both omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids) twice daily.

Pretransplant recipient cytomegalovirus seropositivity and hemodialysis are associated with decreased renal allograft and patient survival.

Background: Pretransplant systemic inflammation has been associated with decreased renal allograft survival, and infectious agents such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) may play a role. We hypothesized that pretransplant CMV seropositivity is a risk factor for decreased patient and allograft survival after cadaveric renal transplantation and that other factors believed to modulate systemic inflammation, such as dialysis modality, might act synergistically with CMV to decrease patient and allograft survival.

Methods: The United Network for Organ Sharing database was reviewed to identify all patients undergoing cadaveric renal transplantation in the United States from 1988 to 1997.

A comparison between recipients receiving matched kidney and those receiving mismatched kidney from the same cadaver donor.

The optimal allocation of cadaveric kidneys for transplantation with reference to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match and sharing these organs to a distant center remains controversial. The current analysis was performed using the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database for cadaveric kidney transplants (Tx) between 1988 and 1997. The graft survivals of zero-mismatch (matched) kidneys with the mate (mismatched) kidneys were compared.