News

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) degeneration, associated with aging, may precede or initiate cartilage damage.

Observing rheumatoid arthritis patients in a systematic way allows rigorous analysis of pain and function. Learn how in this review.

Besides new guidelines on assessing rheumatoid arthritis, the American College of Rheumatology has updated treatment guidance. A panel member reviews the highlights.

Assessing function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a challenging but important part of the rheumatology office visit.

The cause of neck pain, or cervicalgia, can usually be identified by history and physical exam. Learn the provocative maneuvers and "red flag" symptoms to exclude malignancy and reveal radiculopathy or myelpathy.

The original antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) classification criteria (the Sapporo criteria), published in 1999, helped galvanize research in this disorder.1 New clinical, laboratory, and experimental insights gained since then were addressed at the Eleventh International Congress on Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Sydney, Australia, in 2006.

The presence of crystals alone in synovial fluid in patients with acute monoarthritis cannot exclude infection, because septic arthritis and crystal arthritis often coexist.

Insomnia, disordered sleep, and other sleep disturbances are frequently seen in patients with fibromyalgia, and are often associated with increased daytime fatigue and pain.

Anterior hip pain sometimes arises from iliopsoas bursitis, which may present as a groin mass. Pain may be referred to the abdomen, thigh, or knee.

Exercises to promote strengthening, conditioning, and pain control are prescribed regularly as part of the “medical armamentarium.”

Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF), also known as Shulman disease and diffuse fasciitis with eosinophilia, is an uncommon condition that often is confused with scleroderma because they have similar features.

Thirty million Americans have used cocaine, making the United States the world’s largest consumer of the substance; there are about 5 million current users.

Disk degeneration is significantly more likely to occur in adults who are overweight or obese than in those who have a normal body mass index (BMI), a study found.

Should physicians prescribe opioids to patients suffering from pain associated with fibromyalgia. If they decide to do so, how can they tell which patients will benefit?

Defensive medicine-ordering tests, making referrals to specialists, and approving hospital admissions primarily to avoid liability and without providing significant benefit to patients-has been practiced by virtually all orthopedic surgeons, according to a study presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in San Francisco.

Fibromyalgia syndrome has been fraught with ambiguity in diagnosis, uncertainty in understanding of the pathophysiology behind its myriad symptoms, and difficulties that physicians face in managing it competently.

SLE can manifest as lymphadenopathy. This man fulfilled at least 4 diagnostic criteria for SLE, including rash and blood results.

Initial treatment of plantar fasciitis is based on finding ways to reduce stress applied to the plantar fascia. Surgery for plantar fasciitis may be indicated if prolonged attempts at nonoperative correction are unsuccessful.

Doctors may be halting use of anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) medications too early in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who are set to undergo surgery, researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City have found.

The US Food and Drug Administration has accepted for review a New Drug Application for tofacitinib from Pfizer Inc.

There are many herbs and supplements on the market that are thought to be effective by some patients and practitioners for managing pain. However, for many of these herbs and supplements, there is little in the way of reliable evidence supporting these claims. Nonetheless, millions of patients may be using these agents to supplement the pain care provided by their physicians and other clinicians, often without informing them of this fact.

In addition to offering sessions that covered more traditional topics in pain management, including presentations on the evaluation and treatment of back pain, assessing sleep disturbance in fibromyalgia, and identifying changes in the neuromuscular system in osteoarthritis, this year's ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting also offered several additional sessions that addressed more off-the-beaten-path topics.

Gout is associated with a significantly increased risk of cancer, particularly prostate cancer in men, a recent study finds.

Horizon Pharma announced last Tuesday that the FDA had accepted its new drug application for Lodotra, a delayed-release formulation of low-dose prednisone, for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in adults.

A 42-year-old Hispanic woman with a past medical history of HIV infection and noncompliance with highly active antiretroviral therapy was admitted to the emergency department with a new-onset generalized tonic-clonic seizure episode, followed by Todd paralysis.

The spectrum of spondyloarthritis disorders-typically including ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease, reactive arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and undifferentiated SpA-are related clinically and genetically but are distinct entities.

Tumor necrosis factor-α antagonists used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis may pose less risk of serious infection than previously thought, a new study suggests.

With more patients and practitioners expressing interest in non-Western modes of healing and other complementary and alternative forms of medicine, researchers are studying whether traditional Chinese methods like tai chi are effective in treating arthritis and other painful conditions.

Women under 50 with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of breaking bones compared with women who do not have the condition, a new study finds.

African Americans are more likely to have multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA) and to have knee OA, but less likely to have hand OA, a new study finds.