Clinical experience with the European Ankylosing Spondylitis Infliximab Cohort (EASIC): long-term extension over 7 years with focus on clinical efficacy and safety.

Objectives: Knowledge on the long-term effects of anti-TNF therapy in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is still limited. Our objective was to study the long-term efficacy and safety of anti-TNF therapy in AS.

Methods: After having completed the first part of the EASIC trial a total of 71 patients were enrolled into this 96-week extension study.

A new curcuma extract (flexofytol®) in osteoarthritis: results from a belgian real-life experience.

This retrospective observational study summarizes the experiences of 820 patients treated with a new Curcuma extract (Flexofytol®, 4-6 capsules per day), for more than 6 months for various forms of painful osteoarthritis. These experiences were reported by 110 Belgian general practitioners via a questionnaire that included quality-of-life parameters for assessing patient experience. Data were submitted to an independent statistician for analysis.

Intra-articular use of a medical device composed of hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate (Structovial CS): effects on clinical, ultrasonographic and biological parameters.

Background: This pilot open noncontrolled study was designed to assess the efficacy of intra-articular injections of a solution combining hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulphate (CS) in the treatment of outpatients affected by knee osteoarthrosis.

Findings: Thirty patients with knee OA have been included. The primary objective was to assess clinical efficacy as measured by pain and Lequesne's index.

Yeast as a model system for identification of metabolic targets of a 'glucosamine complex' used as a therapeutic agent of osteoarthritis.

This manuscript describes the effect of a glucosamine complex and its different constituents on the metabolism of yeast cells. Indeed, the yeast model biosystem offers important advantages in the understanding of basic cellular and molecular processes. For example, the possibility to differentiate aerobic and anaerobic metabolism allows the measurement of glycolysis and mitochondria importance in the control of energetic metabolism and stress-responsive.

Job of the Bible: leprosy or scabies?

Proposing a medical diagnosis a posteriori of a person who died a long time ago is not as impossible as it sounds if sufficient medical history is available.A whole book of the Bible is devoted to Job and his trials. The diagnosis of leprosy has been generally accepted by medieval commentators because the verses of the Book speak of ulcers disseminated over the skin, and also because leprosy is an exemplary sanction imposed by way of example by God to punish those who have committed a sin.

Open-label, randomized, controlled pilot study of the effects of a glucosamine complex on Low back pain.

Background: A series of studies has suggested some efficacy of glucosamine in arthrosis of the knee, but virtually no documentation exists regarding its effects on low back pain.

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to examine whether a 12-week course of a glucosamine complex (GC) could benefit patients having low back pain despite a course of noninvasive physical therapy. In addition, we sought to delineate the subgroup of responders.

Sonography detection threshold for knee effusion.

The aim of this study was to determine the threshold for detecting knee effusion by ultrasound (US). Five knee specimens from embalmed cadavers were studied. Intra-articular injection of saline, blood and synovial fluid was performed under ultrasound control and methylene blue dye instillation.

Abnormalities in the replicative capacity of osteoblastic cells in the proximal femur of patients with osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

Objective: Aseptic nontraumatic osteonecrosis (ON) of the femoral head is a painful disorder that often leads to femoral head collapse due to subchondral fracture. We postulated that alteration of osteoblast function might play a role in the pathophysiology of ON. We evaluated the ex vivo proliferation rate and differentiation capacity of osteoblasts derived from the intertrochanteric region of the femur and of the iliac crest of patients with ON of the femoral head and compared it with patients with hip osteoarthritis (OA).

Infliximab in primary Sjögren's syndrome: one-year followup.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a maintenance regimen of infliximab in patients with active primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) over a 1-year period.

Methods: This followup study included 10 of the 16 patients with primary SS who participated in a pilot study. Patients who continued to have symptoms received additional infusions of infliximab for 1 year.

Costimulatory blockade in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a pilot, dose-finding, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating CTLA-4Ig and LEA29Y eighty-five days after the first infusion.

Objective: T cells are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In animal models of autoimmune diseases, blockade of costimulatory molecules on antigen-presenting cells has been demonstrated to be effective in preventing or treating this disease by preventing T cell activation. To date, the effect of costimulatory blockade in patients with RA is unknown.

Infecton is not specific for bacterial osteo-articular infective pathology.

The aim of this study was to re-examine, by retrospective analysis of our case material, the specificity and sensitivity of technetium-99m ciprofloxacin scan in discriminating between infection and other conditions. (99m)Tc-ciprofloxacin scintigraphy was performed in 71 patients: 30 patients referred for suspicion of osteomyelitis (OM) or septic arthritis (SA) (group 1) and 41 controls (group 2). Imaging was performed at 4 h post injection and, when possible, at 8 or 24 h post injection.