Ideally clinical practice is evidence-based and patient centred. This report focuses on the major chronic arthropathies seen in primary care practice, namely RA and OA. It was facilitated by the Department of Health as part of its clinical effectiveness programme to improve clinical practice, and is based on discussion at a multidisciplinary workshop. The report reviews evidence-based and effec...

Osteoarthritis is a common and progressive joint disorder. Despite its widespread, in clinical practice only late phases of osteoarthritis that are characterized by severe joint damage are routinely detected. Since osteoarthritis cannot be cured but relatively well managed, an early diagnosis and thereby early onset of disease management would lower the burden of osteoarthritis. Here we evaluat...

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease, the pathological mechanism of which is currently unknown. Genetic alteration is one of the key contributing factors for OA pathology. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic and microRNA regulation of critical genes may contribute to OA development. In this article, we review the epigenetic and microRNA regulations of genes related to...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare mortality risks of patients with Charcot arthropathy with those of patients with diabetic foot ulcer and those of patients with diabetes alone (no ulcer or Charcot arthropathy). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A retrospective cohort of 1,050 patients with incident Charcot arthropathy in 2003 in a large health care system was compared with patient...

The use of synovial fluid-derived mesenchymal stem cells (SFMSCs) obtained from patients with degenerative arthropathy may serve as an alternative therapeutic strategy in osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). For treatment of OA and RA patients, autologous transplantation of differentiated MSCs has several beneficial effects for cartilage regeneration including immunomodulatory act...

Soft-tissue tophaceous deposits have been reported in the finger, carpal tunnel, spine (cervical and lumbar), hip, knee, and Achilles tendon.1,3,6,8,10,13,16 Intraosseous and intradermal sites have also been described, and there is also a report of a tophus being the cause of fracture nonunion.4,5,17 Glenohumeral joint involvement in gouty arthropathy, however, is unusual.7 Tophaceous gout corr...

Metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint osteoarthritis (OA), also known as hallux rigidus (HR), is the most common degenerative arthropathy of the foot and is often the result of trauma. There are multiple methods of addressing the patient's pain and limited function. Arthrodesis is the gold standard to manage severe MTP arthritis with a highly significant union rate. With various techniques of arthrod...

background & aim: the purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the pain of patients with spondylolisthesis who had undergone either of the surgery techniques: posterolateral fusion (plf) or posterior lumbar interbody fusion (plif). methods & materials/patients: in a prospective observational study, 102 surgical candidates with low grade degenerative and isthmic spondylolisthesis were e...

Introduction: Hemophilic ankle arthropathy is the result of recurrent bleeding. Arthropathy reduces joint movement, causes chronic pain, restricts normal activity, causes depressive episodes, and diminishes quality of life. Objective: The aim the present work is to present our surgical technique for supramalleolar metaphysis osteotomy in haemophilic arthropathy with valgus deformity. Material a...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency and character of arthropathy in hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) and to investigate the relationship between this arthropathy, nodal interphalangeal osteoarthritis, and iron load. METHODS Participants were recruited from the community by newspaper advertisement and assigned to diagnostic confidence categories for HH (definite/probable or possible/unlikely)....