Arthritis News and Research

Latest Arthritis News and Research

Metal-on-metal artificial disc relieves pain from degenerative cervical disc disease

The neck and arm pain caused by degenerative cervical (neck) disc disease may be eliminated by replacing the problem disc with a metal-on-metal artificial disc, said Loyola University Health System neurological surgeon Dr. Russ P. Nockels.

19 Jul 2007

Research on proteases and pathological processes

A research group of the UAB Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine and the UAB Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, directed by Francesc Xavier Aviles, is the coordinator of a European project aimed at studying proteases with fluorescent molecules that allow their monitoring in healthy and pathological situations.

18 Jul 2007

Women have poorer short-term recovery than men from arthroscopic knee surgery

The factors associated with poor short-term recovery from knee surgery appear to be different than those found to mar long-term outcome from the same surgery, according to new research released at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine at the Telus Convention Center.

16 Jul 2007

New gene found for type 1 diabetes in children

Pediatrics researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and McGill University in Montreal have identified a gene variant that raises a child's risk for type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes.

16 Jul 2007

New target for muscular dystrophy drug therapy

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report how the gene for utrophin, which codes for a protein very similar to dystrophin, the defective protein in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), puts the brakes on its own expression in muscle cells, thereby suggesting a new target for treatment.

13 Jul 2007

microRNA may play an important role in psoriasis and eczema

A research team at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown for the time that microRNA, small RNA molecules, may play an important role in the development of inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic eczema.

12 Jul 2007

Hydroxychloroquine may reduce risk of diabetes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Preliminary research suggests that use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine may help reduce the risk of the development of diabetes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study in the July 11 issue of JAMA .

11 Jul 2007

Selenium supplements may do more harm than good

In a British trial examining the benefit of selenium supplements it has been found that in some cases the supplement can do more harm than good.

11 Jul 2007

Selenium supplements appear to increase risk of developing type 2 diabetes

A new analysis of data from a large national study found that people who took a 200 microgram selenium supplement each day for almost eight years had an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who took a placebo or dummy pill.

10 Jul 2007

Waiting for joint replacement surgery

A team of Bristol University researchers are aiming to find out why some people waiting for a hip or knee replacement have to wait longer than others for surgery.

9 Jul 2007

Exercise reduces inflammation

Although a number of studies have suggested that regular exercise reduces inflammation a condition that is predictive of cardiovascular and other diseases, such as diabetes it is still not clear whether there is a definitive link.

9 Jul 2007

Warning on Chikungunya virus

Fever, arthritis, and other symptoms occurring in people to who have recently traveled to islands in the Indian Ocean may signal infection with an imported virus called "chikungunya," reports a study in the May/June issue of the journal Medicine, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

9 Jul 2007

Chronic fatigue: clues in the blood

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) believe that blood may hold vital insights into what is happening in the brain of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

8 Jul 2007

Surgery more effective than other treatments for common back problem

When it comes to low back pain, physicians generally advise exhausting nonsurgical options before resorting to surgery.

29 Jun 2007

High frequency of sperm abnormalities associated with reduced testicular volume in male lupus patients

The prognosis for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease that mainly affects women in their reproductive years, has improved recently, prompting a shift toward improving quality of life.

29 Jun 2007

Rheumatologists overestimate physical disability of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Rheumatologists substantially overestimate the physical disability of patients with rheumatoid arthritis which may lead to inaccurate evaluations of the patient's ability to work and need for lifestyle modifications, a new study found.

29 Jun 2007

Patient choice and treatment alternatives for arthritis

Patients with osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) face different treatment options and determining which ones to try can be confusing.

29 Jun 2007

Scientists discover role of ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein in DNA repair

Scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Integrative Bioinformatics Inc. have made an important discovery about the role of an enzyme called ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein (ATM) in the body's ability to repair damaged DNA.

28 Jun 2007

Embryonic stem cell in rodents could lead to treatment for Parkinson's

Scientists in Britain have discovered a new type of embryonic stem cell in mice and rats that could accelerate research into degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson's.

27 Jun 2007

Role of environmental factors in the development of Parkinson's disease

Scientists at the Buck Institute for Age Research have shown that combining two environmental toxic substances accelerated age-related degeneration in neurons associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) in mice.

27 Jun 2007