BackgroundThe risk of periodontitis (PD) is increased in the patient group of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA and PD also shared some pathological mechanism. The aim of this study is to investigate the risk of RA associated with PD exposure.Methods and FindingsThis study identified 3 mutually exclusive cohorts using the 1999–2010 Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to investigate the association between PD and the risk of incident RA. All patients with PD in 2000 were identified from the database of all enrollees as the PD cohort. From the representative database of 1,000,000 enrollees randomly selected in 2010 (LHID2010), individuals without any periodontal disease (PO) during 1999–2010 were selected as the non-PO cohort. Individuals who were not included in the non-PO cohort and received dental scaling (DS) no more than two times per year during 1999–2010 were selected as the DS cohort from LHID2010. Using cox proportional regression analysis, hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (Cis) were calculated to quantify the association between PD exposure and RA development. In the three-group comparison using the non-PO cohort as reference, we found that the risk of RA was higher in the PD and DS cohorts (HRs, 1.89 and 1.43; 95% CIs, 1.56–2.29 and 1.09–1.87, respectively). For comparisons between two cohorts, the PD cohort had a higher risk of RA than the non-PO and DS cohorts (HRs, 1.91 and 1.35; 95% CIs, 1.57–2.30 and 1.09–1.67, respectively).ConclusionPD was associated with an increased risk of RA development.
Background. Guilu Erxian Jiao (GEJ) is a widely used Chinese herbal remedy for knee osteoarthritis, but its clinical efficacy is unknown. Methods. We enrolled 42 elderly male patients with knee OA, including 21 patients who received the herbal drug GEJ as the case group and 21 patients who did not receive GEJ as the control group. The effects of 12 weeks of GEJ treatment on muscle strength of lower limbs were measured by a Biodex dynamometer, with disability evaluated on the Lequesne index and articular pain measured on the visual analog scale (VAS) between the two groups on the baseline and after treatment. Results. There were significant increases in the levels of muscle strength of TQ/BW-ext-dominant and TQ/BW-flex-dominant between the two groups after treatment (P < 0.05). There were also significant increases in muscle strength of knee extensor muscles in the GEJ-treated group (n = 21) self-controlled before and after 12 weeks of treatment (all P < 0.01). There were significant decreases in articular pain (P < 0.01) and Lequesne index scores (P < 0.01) in the GEJ-treated group when compared to the non-GEJ-treated group. Conclusions. Our results showed that GEJ is effective and is tolerated well in elderly men with knee OA.
We evaluated the predictability of self-reported Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessed by the 3-level 5-dimensional Euro-Quality of Life tool (EQ-5D-3L) and the EQ-Visual Analog Scale (EQ-VAS) on clinical outcomes of elderly patients who were admitted to an acute geriatric ward. A total of 102 participants (56.9% men) with a median age of 81.0 years (interquartile range or IQR: 76.0–85.3 years) were studied. The age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index was 5.0 (IQR: 4.0–6.0) with a median length of stay (LOS) of 9.0 days (IQR: 7.0–15.0 days). No death occurred during hospitalization, and within 30 days after discharge, 15 patients were readmitted. During hospitalization, the EQ-5D-3L index was 0.440 at admission and that improved to 0.648 at discharge (p < 0.001). EQ-VAS scores also improved similarly from 60 to 70 (p < 0.001). Physical, cognitive function, frailty parameters (hand grip strength and walking speed), and nutritional status at admission all improved significantly during hospitalization and were related to EQ-5D-3L index or EQ-VAS scores at discharge. After controlling for relevant factors, EQ-5D-3L index at admission was found to be associated with LOS. In addition, EQ-VAS was marginally related to readmission. HRQoL assessment during hospitalization could be useful to guide clinical practice and to improve outcome.
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