Emerging Trends in Diagnosis and Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Study of advanced rheumatoid arthritis

“…For example, in 2003, the United States of America spent a total of 128 billion US$ on rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is just one type of rheumatic disease (Birch and Bhattacharya, 2010;Centers…, 2011). Of this sum, 3.6 billion US$ were spent on drug therapies (Waljee and Chung, 2011) and about US$ 14,000 on cardiovascular disease associated with an increased prevalence of coronary artery disease present in RA (Desai et al, 2010).…”

“…The ACR uses RF as a biomarker that can be detected in 70-80% of patients with RA, but it can also be found in other rheumatic diseases. Therefore, it is a test for a non-specific biomarker, which is also present in infections and about 5-10% of healthy individuals (Birch and Bhattacharya, 2010;Ryu et al, 2011). The CRP test is based on the increase in serum C-reactive protein, which is synthesized in great amounts immediately after any tissue damage.…”

“…NSAIDs should not be used alone, as they do not change the course of the disease. Most RA treatment includes NSAIDs for pain control, glucocorticoids and the initiation of a DMARDs (Birch and Bhattacharya, 2010).…”

Dilemmas of participation in everyday life in early rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative interview study (The Swedish TIRA Project)

“…Because the disease mechanisms are now fairly well known, today's strategy of early pharmacological treatment and new biological drugs have lead to reduced disease activity and less disability compared to previously [4,5]. However, even in early RA many patients still report disability, implying a persistent need for rehabilitative interventions and medication, and probably also improvements of clinical reasoning with respect to rehabilitation strategies [3,6,7]. In comparison with the greatly developed knowledge of biological aspects of the disease, it is necessary to learn more about patients' perspectives of disabling mechanisms in order to improve the rehabilitation part of clinical interventions.…”

A Lytic Lesion on the Head of the Fifth Metatarsal Bone Mimicking Rheumatoid Arthritis in a Geriatric Patient

“…In addition, nearly 25% of geriatric patients have increased RF and sometimes have slightly increased anti-CCP levels. [2] For these patients, significantly elevated levels of the sed rate, CRP, and, especially, anti-CCP may be very helpful. [3] In conclusion, diagnosis of RA in geriatrics may be prove to be difficult due to RF positivity and insignificant clinical presentation.…”