The potential role of Chinese medicine in ameliorating extra-articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease chiefly affecting synovial membranes of multiple joints. The clinical manifestations are highly variable. Besides joint affection, extra-articular manifestations always occur in RA patients, such as lung, blood vessel, heart, endocrine glands, hematological system, and nervous system affections.

[Magnetic resonance imaging for the wrist joint of the coal miners in vibration department].

Objective: To study the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the wrist joint of coal miners who work in excavation and vibration department.

Methods: Forty-three coal miners with the hand-arm vibration disease served as the observation group while 20 workers who were not working in the vibration department acted as the control group. The patients in the observation group were divided into five subgroups according to the time when they received vibration.