Active clinical trials for "Arthritis, Rheumatoid"

This study will be an open label observational prospective study assessing the clinical efficacy of antiTNFα therapy and the alteration/impact on the synovial tissue, with specific regard to lymphoid aggregation, over a period of 12 months in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most important chronic inflammatory disorders in the UK. It affects approximately 1% of adults and causes considerable morbidity, substantially reduces quality of life and has a significant mortality. It results in large direct medical costs as well as extensive indirect social costs. Despite the significant therapeutic progress following the introduction of antiTNFα, a cure for RA is still elusive. At present the reasons for the variation in clinical response are not known. The main aim of this study is to test the hypothesis that there are distinct molecular and cellular phenotypes present within the synovial tissue that define specific disease subsets and provide characteristic prognostic implications. In particular, the aim is to assess the relationship between the presence of ectopic lymphoneogenesis (ELN) within the rheumatoid synovial membrane and response to antiTNFα therapy.

Development of glucocorticoid (GC)-induced adrenal insufficiency is a serious adverse effect of GC treatment. It is today not possible to predict this adverse effect. The project aims at investigating a possible individual aspect, which may render subjects more or less sensitive to glucocorticoids, and thereby influence development of GC induced adrenal insufficiency. The hypothesis is that subjects with one or another of the polymorphisms in the GC receptor gene will either have increased or diminished GC sensitivity. This may be responsible for differences in development of GC induced adrenal insufficiency.

The main aim of this study is to identify genetic markers (at DNA and RNA level) which are involved in the response to treatment with monoclonal antibodies against TNF in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Although SLE and RA are correlated with genetic predisposing factors such as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II, both diseases and other genetic factors might have contributed to the development of dysregulated lymphocyte activation and autoimmunity. Decoy receptor 3 (DcR3)/TR6 is a secreted protein belonging to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family. It binds to Fas ligand (FasL), LIGHT, and TL1A that are all TNF family members. It was noted that soluble or solid phase DcR3-Fc co-stimulated proliferation, lymphokine production and cytotoxicity of mouse and human T cells upon T-cell receptor (TCR) ligation. Recently, the investigators found that the serum level of soluble DcR3 was higher in SLE patients than in healthy control subjects (unpublished data). Taken together, the investigators propose that in autoimmune diseases, such as RA and SLE, activated T cells secrete more DcR3 than non-autoimmune controls, which may, in turn, costimulate T cells further and cause dysregulated lymphocyte activation. With the aim to establish the possible correlation between DcR3 genetic polymorphisms, DcR3 expressions, and autoimmune phenotypes, the investigators offer this proposal. They plan to investigate the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the DcR3 gene. The genetic polymorphisms on the DcR3/TR6 gene and circulating DcR3 level will be compared between RA, SLE and non-autoimmune control subjects.

Prospective, post-marketing, multi-center, open-label study to explore if the initiation of adalimumab could influence grey-scale (GS) and power Doppler (PD) ultrasonographic (US) score using 36-joint plus 4-tendon scoring system, and validate the applicability of different simplified US joint scoring systems.

This study will investigate if an electronic dataglove can be used to measure joint stiffness in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The study will assess the disease severity and treatment patterns of rheumatoid arthritis in Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and North African countries.

Patients who participated in the FUNCTION Study (Protocol WA19926) will be enrolled in this study. The investigators want to learn how long it takes Early Rheumatoid Arthritis patients who were treated with Tocilizumab to require treatment with another biologic medication.

To explore the association among TCM pattern, TCM tongue diagnosis and TCM pulse diagnosis for Autoimmune disease and Dry eye syndrome

Primary objective: To determine the changes in circadian activity rhythms and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from pre-treatment to one month after Enbrel initiation. Secondary objectives: To determine if there is an association between changes in circadian rhythm and changes in disease activity in active RA after initiation of Enbrel To determine if the changes in circadian activity rhythms are associated with systemic inflammation in RA patients To determine changes in traditional sleep quality variables from pre-treatment to one month after Enbrel initiation in RA patients