[Intravenous high dose glucocorticoids in patients with ankylosing spondylitis].

Aim: To study efficacy and tolerance of 1-3-day intravenous therapy with high dose glucocorticoids in patients with active ankylosing spondylitis (AS).

Material And Methods: Methylprednisolone (MP, n = 33) and dexamethason (DM, n = 13) were given to 46 patients with active AS (median BASDAI 47; coxitis was in 37 patients, arthritis of other peripheral joints--in 30 patients). MP and DM were given as 1-3 intravenous infusions, in single doses equivalent to 500-1000 mg of MP.

[Articular lesions in Ixodes tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease)].

Articular lesions in 157 patients infected with ixodes tick-borne borreliosis (ITB) in a central Russia's region set on, on the average, in 4 months after tick attack; they were associated with systemic signs of an early disseminated infection and set on less seldom in a late period. The most often encountered systemic signs were as follows: secondary erythema (32% of patients), neurological syndrome (13%), cardio-vascular lesions (22%), ocular lesions (13%) and hepatic lesions (8%). The articular syndrome manifested itself through arthralgia (53 patients) and arthritis (104 patients), which set on quite often in the tick-attack area.

[Dynamic changes in synovitis activity after intra-articular administration of xefocam in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (according to clinical and device examinations)].

Aim: To assess efficacy of intraarticular administration of lornoxicam (xefocam) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Material And Methods: Xefocam was injected into the knee joints of 58 patients with RA once a week for 3 weeks in a dose 8 mg. The treatment efficacy was evaluated by changes in the severity of arthralgias, pain in the joints at palpation, circumference of the knee joints at the level of the upper edge of the patella, ultrasound and thermography of the knee joints.

[The local therapy of enthesitis and bursitis of the calcaneal area in seronegative spondylarthritis].

Four methods of local treatment of calcaneal enthesopathy and bursitis (hydrocortisone phonophoresis, laser radiation, glucocorticosteroids injections into the calcaneal region, physiotherapy with sinusoidal modulated currents) were tried in 69 patients with seronegative spondylarthritis. Local injections of glucocorticosteroids produced the best effect. Laser therapy or hydrocortisone phonophoresis is recommended in dominating pain syndrome in the calcaneal region.

[Methods for the instrumental diagnosis and verification of Lyme arthritis].

We used instrumental methods to characterise Lyme arthropathy in 79 patients with joint involvement and history of Lyme borreliosis. All of them had arthralgia and 45 of them also had arthritis. Radiological examination has established subchondral bone sclerosis in sacroiliac joints in 68% and sacroiliitis in 29% of the examinees.