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Arthritis
University
of Michigan Health System RNS, Arthritis, March 2003
Full press release at the following URL:
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2003/arthritis.htm
New medications help
patients cope with rheumatoid arthritis
(Download audio
version)
Suggested
Lead: Nearly two million Americans have arthritis, a disease
that can limit a person's ability to work and do every day activities
- usually striking during a person's prime working years. Thanks
to new treatments, there is help. Here is Andi McDonnell with more.
TRT 2:00
SOQ
Arthritis refers
to any disease involving joint inflammation or deterioration. While
there are more than 100 types of arthritis, the two most common
are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. With rheumatoid arthritis,
the joint lining becomes swollen and stiff causing white blood cells
to move into the joint, which can potentially lead to damage of
cartilage and bone.
Symptoms of
rheumatoid arthritis can begin at any age, even during childhood.
However, the initial onset of the disorder in adults tends to start
between the ages of 30 and 60. And like many other autoimmune diseases,
women are twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis then men.
Dr. David Fox,
(MD), a rheumatologist at the University of Michigan Health System
describes the symptoms.
"Rheumatoid
arthritis causes pain in joints and stiffness, stiffness which
is often worse at the beginning of the day or at any time after
somebody has been at rest in a particular position. So patients
will wake up in the morning and feel stiff and often very painful
in many of their joints. The joints also do tend to swell and
people may lose some of their appetite, may have a low grade fever,
may lose some weight, may have a significant loss of energy. And
they may notice that joints in the hands and the feet and in other
areas of the body all hurt at the same time."
Currently,
there are three new medications available in the United States to
treat rheumatoid arthritis.
"Most
effective in rheumatoid arthritis are the drugs that we call disease
modifying antirheumatic drugs, such as methotrexate, for example,
or the more recently developed drugs that block TFN, the TFN blockers,
and TFN stands for tumor necrosis factor. This one of the important
inflammatory molecules that's produced inside the joint in rheumatoid
arthritis and we do have medications now that can neutralize that
molecule."
Fox advises
anyone who is experiencing joint pain or swelling for more than
a week to make an appointment with their health care provider.
Andi McDonnell
U-M Health System News
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