Culture

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2013: Data from AMPLE presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrate comparable efficacy and similar safety profiles between subcutaneous abatacept (ABA) and adalimumab (ADA).

AMPLE, the first two-year head-to-head biologics trial, was comprised of 646 biologic-naïve patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) equally randomised to either ABA or ADA, with a stable dose of methotrexate (MTX). 79.2% (252 of 318) ABA patients and 74.7% (245 of 328) ADA patients completed the trial.

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2013: New data presented today at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism show that apremilast administered to patients with psoriatic arthritis continues to demonstrate meaningful clinical responses beyond 24 weeks. For patients who completed 52 weeks of the study, up to 65% achieved ACR20* response rates. Also, apremilast continued to be well tolerated with an acceptable longer-term safety profile.

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2013: A new study presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates the efficacy of the ARASHI method at evaluating radiographic (X-ray) joint damage in RA.

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2013: Results of the first study involving RA patients in the development of an internet-based physical activity intervention were presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism.

These data show that seven categories are crucial for the adoption and maintenance of PA: personal incentives, personal mastering, information adapted to the Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) condition, peer support, professional coaching, physical environment and resources, and societal support/financial assistance.

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2013: A new study presented at EULAR 2013, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism, demonstrates that progressive muscle strengthening using a Swiss ball is effective in improving muscle strength and walking performance in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS).

Patients randomised to the exercise programme showed statistically significant improvements in muscle strength with no worsening of disease activity; in addition these patients reported greater satisfaction with their treatment than those in the control group.

Two new studies by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery have shed light on joint replacement outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One study overturns the common belief that RA patients have worse outcomes after a total knee replacement (TKR) than patients who undergo the operation for osteoarthritis. The other study demonstrates that RA patients who undergo a total hip replacement were as likely to have significant improvements in function and pain as patients with osteoarthritis (OA), even though they did not do as well.

MADRID -- The painful rheumatic condition gout is often associated with the big toe, but it turns out that patients at highest risk of further flare-ups are those whose gout first involved other joints, such as a knee or elbow, Mayo Clinic has found. The study is among several that Mayo researchers are presenting in Madrid at the European League Against Rheumatism's annual meeting.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When Web surfers sign up for a new online service or download a Web application for their smartphone or tablet, the service typically requires them to click a seemingly innocuous box and accept the company's terms of service and privacy policy. But agreeing to terms without reading them beforehand can adversely affect a user's legal rights, says a new paper by a University of Illinois expert in technology and legal issues.

Health organisations need to give careful consideration to schemes which encourage people with chronic diseases to seek support from peers, to avoid the potential negative effects, new research shows.

It is more important to patients suffering from depression that they show a noticeable response to treatment in the first place than being completely cured. It is exactly the opposite in physicians treating people with this disease: they consider remission to have higher priority than response. This is the result of a pilot project carried out by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) together with external experts.

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a previously undetected layer in the cornea, the clear window at the front of the human eye.

The breakthrough, announced in a study published in the academic journal Ophthalmology, could help surgeons to dramatically improve outcomes for patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants.

The new layer has been dubbed the Dua's Layer after the academic Professor Harminder Dua who discovered it.

A University of Adelaide expert says that while the war against smoking in Hollywood movies has been largely won, Asian cinema represents the next major battleground for anti-smoking and anti-cancer groups.

Vancouver, British Columbia – Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the world's most prevalent and silent killers. Positron emission tomography (PET), which images miniscule abnormalities in cellular metabolism, can tip off clinicians about cardiac disasters waiting to happen— including sudden death from a heart attack—better than standard angiography, researchers revealed at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2013 Annual Meeting.

Vancouver, British Columbia – A new patient protocol for aggressive and recurrent lymphoma that combines intensive chemotherapy and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) may become the most powerful cancer-killing therapy available, with the hope that patients' lymphoma can be eradicated as they prepare for bone marrow transplant, say researchers at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. In a study presented at the meeting, survival rates without recurrence improved with the addition of RIT, with some having a 100 percent chance of survival over two years.

The war on the medical care of senior Americans continues.

Diabetes patients on Medicare Part D are two to three times more likely to be prescribed brand-name drugs than comparable patients receiving care within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), at an added cost of about $1 billion a year.

Medicare and the VA have a significantly different approach to drug prescribing. Medicare contracts with more than 1,000 private insurance companies, each using a distinct formulary and cost-sharing arrangement for prescribing drugs.