View clinical trials related to Arthritis.
Filter by:Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are at risk of developing permanent joint damage and disability. This study hopes to identify the most effective way of using existing arthritis medication to minimise the chances of developing permanent disability. Patients will have their arthritis activity assessed using an ultrasound machine. If there is still evidence of active arthritis the participant's arthritis medication will be increased until the arthritis is in remission. The effectiveness of this approach will be compared to the traditional method of assessing arthritis using clinical examination. Furthermore, it is extremely important to identify those patients most at risk of aggressive disease. The investigators hope to produce a more accurate measurement of disease prognosis by examining the relationship between a series of blood tests and how well controlled rheumatoid arthritis appears after 18 months of therapy. Some patients will also be asked to donate samples of joint fluid and joint lining for additional analysis.
Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) suffer in up to 87% of the cases of arthritis of the temporomandibular joints (TMJs). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the only modality for the early diagnosis of TMJ involvement. Aim of the study is to compare symptoms and clinical findings with MRI and ultrasonography results and to describe the action of the current medication on the arthritis of the TMJs.
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) may progress asymptomatically leading to joint destruction despite treatment. The aim of the observational study is to describe patients with silent arthritis comparing symptoms, clinical findings with results of ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The purpose of this feasibility study is to determine if a new emerging technology called photoacoustic tomography (PAT) can be adapted for use in humans for the detection of chronic rheumatoid arthritis.
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are the most common rheumatic diseases dealt with rheumatologists in Taiwan. In previous studies, the 3 diseases all have broad impacts on health-related quality of life of patients and drive enormous economic burden on patients and society. The objective of this study is to compare health-related quality of life and disease-related costs between patients with the 3 different diseases. We will invite at least 100 patients with AS, RA or SLE respectively who are regularly followed in the outpatient clinic of the Division of Rheumatology at Taichung Veterans General Hospital (VGHTC) to participate in the study. Patients who have cognitive impairment, who are older than 65 years old or younger than 18 years old, who have overlapping syndrome of any 2 of the 3 rheumatic diseases (eg. RA overlapping with SLE) or who have visited rheumatologists in the outpatient clinics at VGHTC for less than 4 times in 2008 will be excluded. Patients who agree to take part will attend a comprehensive clinical examination in the outpatient department. Patients will complete a questionaire including demographic and disease characteristics, and health-related quality of life at the time of survey. The questionaires about disease-related costs will be completed once per quarter throughout 2009. The four questionaires about costs will be given at the time of initial survey and will be returned by returned by mail or in the following outpatient clinics visits every 3 months in 2009. The result of this study will help patients to realize their own health-related quality of life and disease-related costs and help government in Taiwan to realize the socioeconomic burden of the 3 common rheumatic diseases and to allocate health care resources more properly in the future.
The investigators aim to demonstrate the ability to accurately measure and restore leg length, offset, and center of rotation during a total hip replacement through a new technique that uses the femoral component as a measurement tool. The operative technique requires inserting the femoral component prior to performing the femoral neck osteotomy. After the femoral component is implanted, a reference guide is attached to the femoral component and guides a screw into the ilium at a fixed distance from the femoral component. The pre-arthroplasty measurements of leg length and offset are recorded. The femoral neck osteotomy is performed, and the native femoral head is removed and measured. The acetabular socket is prepared and the acetabular component is inserted. A repeat measurement with trial modular neck components is taken and allows the surgeon an additional opportunity to accurately recreate leg length and offset with the final component. The reference screw is removed from the ilium and the incision is closed.
The purpose of this study is to see if the clinical outcome success rate of Total Ankle Arthroplasty is similar to that of Ankle Arthrodesis over a period of 10 years. This will include looking at whether Total ankle arthroplasty results in a lower rate of hindfoot arthrosis and arthritis after surgery compared to ankle joint arthrodesis and if the rate of complications and revision surgery is acceptable when compared to Ankle Arthrodesis over a period of 10 years.
The objectives of this group project is to collect synovial fluid (SF) and paired sera and carry out preclinical studies to evaluate, alone or by combination testings, the potential of novel biomarkers for their prevalence and diagnostic/prognostic values in patients with arthritis, and to determine how therapeutic intervention regulate their levels.
Inflammatory joint diseases are major causes of invalidity and morbidity. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most frequent of chronic arthritides, affects close to 1% of the Canadian population. Direct and indirect costs of RA represent close to 1% of the gross national product. Recent evidence suggest that initiation of early (e.g., during the first 3-12 months of disease) aggressive treatment decreases both mortality and long term invalidity in RA and other chronic arthritides. However, a significant proportion of patients with early polyarthritis (EPA) have a benign evolution, even if they fulfill criteria for RA. On the contrary, most patients whose arthritis persist for more than 12 months have a progressive and destructive disease. Currently available clinical, serological and genetic markers of severity in arthritic patients perform poorly in EPA patients to identify those patients whose arthritis is likely to persist and thus who deserve an aggressive treatment. The Investigators propose a prospective and longitudinal study to define the contribution of detection of rheumatoid arthritis-specific autoantibodies (RASA), either alone or in combination with other markers of severity, in the prognostic evaluation of patients presenting with EPA. Availability of such an effective serological tool to establish prognosis in individual patients would improve therapeutic decisions in clinical practice. The same prognostic tools would represent very powerful instruments to subset patients into more homogeneous groups in clinical trials, increasing their power.
The main aim of this study is to identify genetic markers (at DNA and RNA level) which are involved in the response to treatment with monoclonal antibodies against TNF in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.