UK WATCHDOG BACKS NEW DRUGS FOR SEVERE ARTHRITIS

LONDON (Reuters) Mar 22 - Britain's National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) on Friday recommended that two costly new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis should be given on the state health service to patients who have not responded to conventional drugs. Industry sources had previously told Reuters that NICE would back the two products - Remicade (infliximab), made by Johnson & Johnson, and Immunex Corp.'s Enbrel (etanercept). Both drugs work by blocking a chemical in the body called tumour necrosis factor (TNF), which is thought to play an important role in driving the inflammation and tissue damage of rheumatoid arthritis. " ...

BONE MARROW DEFECTS SEEN IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, MIGHT HINDER EXPERIMENTAL THERAPIES

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 22 - Patients with active rheumatoid arthritis have quantitative and qualitative abnormalities of bone marrow hematopoietic progenitor cells, and the bone marrow microenvironment is unable to support normal hematopoiesis, study results show. The abnormalities are due, at least in part, to increased production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) by inflammatory cells within the bone marrow, according to Dr. Helen A. Papadaki, of University Hospital of Heraklion, Greece, and colleagues there and at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London. Autologous stem cell transplantation is being explored as ...

STATIN USE IS ASSOCIATED WITH A REDUCTION IN FRACTURE RISK IN WOMEN

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 20 - The use of HMG-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) is associated with a substantial reduction in fracture risk in older women , according to a report in the March 11th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The effects of bone mineral density (BMD) do not explain this risk reduction. In a cross-sectional study, Dr. Julie A. Pasco and colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Australia, examined the association between statin use, fracture risk, and BMD in 573 women with incident fractures and 802 women without fracture. The patients were aged 50 to 95, with an average of about 70 years. T ...

STEP-DOWN THERAPY DOES NOT RELIABLY CONTROL EARLY RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Mar 19 - Stepping down to monotherapy after 6-month combination therapy with cyclosporin A and methotrexate does not seem to be a viable option for patients with early, nonerosive rheumatoid arthritis, Italian researchers report. Maintenance therapy with cyclosporin A alone is ineffective, the researchers found, and while step-down to methotrexate is more efficacious and better tolerated, it does not control radiographic progression. Dr. Antonio Marchesoni, of G. Pini Orthopaedic Institute, Milan, and colleagues evaluated 57 adults who had shown signs of active rheumatoid arthritis for 6 months to 2 years witho ...

RACE IDENTIFIED AS A FACTOR IN CHRONIC PAIN EXPERIENCE IN YOUNG PATIENTS

BALTIMORE (Reuters Health) Mar 19 - Young African Americans with chronic pain develop more severe pain, more depressive symptoms, and more physical disability than Caucasian Americans, researchers announced here last Friday at the 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society. Dr. Carmen R. Green and a group from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor conducted a survey of 3753 African Americans and Caucasian Americans between the ages of 20 and 50 at the time of their initial presentation at the school's tertiary care pain center. The mean age was about 37 years in both patient groups. Before entry into the treatment pro ...

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