A multicentre, randomised, double blind, placebo controlled phase II study of subcutaneous interferon beta-1a in the treatment of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of interferon beta (IFN beta) in combination with methotrexate in treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Methods: 209 patients with active rheumatoid arthritis, who had been on methotrexate for at least six months and at a stable dose for four weeks before study entry, were randomised in double blind fashion to receive placebo (0.05 ml or 0.

Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Patients with active and severe RA (disease duration <8 years) were recruited into a 24-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter study. Doses of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and/or oral corticosteroids (< or =10 mg prednisolone daily) remained constant throughout the study.

Contrast enhanced Gd-DTPA magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of rheumatoid arthritis during a clinical trial with DMARDs. A prospective two-year follow-up study on hand joints in 31 patients.

Objective: The aim of this prospective 24-month follow-up study was to compare clinical features with radiological and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in evaluating synovial proliferation in the hand joints of 31 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A single joint was used for the follow-up of each patient.

Methods: Thirty-one small hand joints were examined by conventional radiography and MRI before and after 24 months of treatment.

MRI evaluation of the knee in rheumatoid arthritis.

The knees of forty-three patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined using pre- and post-contrast MRI in an attempt to assess the extent and frequency of all abnormalities in the RA knee. Features evaluated by MRI were: synovial thickening, joint effusion, bone destruction, popliteal cysts, periarticular soft tissue swelling, abnormal tendons and bone marrow changes. A scoring system (0-2) was used to determine the relationship between the various signs of RA in order to identify those that may be relevant for the assessment of therapeutic response.

Prognostic value of contrast enhanced Gd-DTPA MRI for development of bone erosive changes in rheumatoid arthritis.

Conventional radiograms have been used to quantitate the progression of rheumatoid arthritis, mainly through the assessment of bone erosions, but this approach has many limitations. It has been suggested that an advantage of contrast-enhanced Gd-DTPA MRI over radiography may be its prognostic value due to its ability to show the natural history of active destructive to inactive fibrous pannus. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible prognostic value of MRI for future development of bone erosive changes in small hand joints in patients with RA.

Precontrast and postcontrast (Gd-DTPA) magnetic resonance imaging of hand joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

In an attempt to demonstrate whether clinically selected joints of the hand in active rheumatoid disease had consistent MRI findings, 45 patients were examined, in whom one joint in each was selected by both the referring clinician and patient as being active and symptomatic. Such joints, in order to be included in the study, were required to conform to ARA criteria of activity and usually mild to moderate X-ray changes. The joints were imaged using spin-echo sequences with T1W and T2W precontrast images, followed by T1W images after intravenous administration of Gd-DTPA.

The haemorheological and antithrombotic potential of pentoxifylline ('Trental'): a review.

Haemorheological knowledge achieved in the past decade has revealed the essential interactions of flow properties of blood with haemostatic, coagulation, and vessel wall mechanisms in blood flow disturbances. Fine tuning of these factors maintains the physiologically adequate perfusion of the nutritive microcirculation. Under pathological conditions, therefore, the most beneficial effect can be expected from the therapeutic approaches which, apart from the disturbed flow properties of the blood itself, improve also all the other factors involved.

Hemorheology in surgery--a review.

The rheological behavior of blood and its components under physiologic and pathophysiologic conditions is reviewed, with a focus on the type and extent of pathohemorheological changes in surgical patients during hospitalization and thereafter, as well as their clinical consequences with regard to thromboembolic complications. During the operation and the postoperative period various hemorheological and hemostasiological alterations acquire clinical significance: 1. hyperreagibility of platelets with increased aggregation and adhesion tendency 2.

Shunt thrombosis prevention in hemodialysis patients--a double-blind, randomized study: pentoxifylline vs placebo.

Previous studies demonstrated a high incidence of local thrombosis in patients in whom external arteriovenous shunts were used for vascular access. This procedure provides, therefore, a useful model for the evaluation of potential antithrombotic agents. The effect of the hemorheologically and hemostasiologically active drug Pentoxifylline on the incidence of thrombosis of arteriovenous shunts (Ramires shunt) was investigated in a long-term, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 51 patients on chronic hemodialysis.