Active clinical trials for "Arthritis"

In this study we will assess the presence of prolactin hormone in the gingival crevicular fluid , and synovial fluid of patient with rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis

The objective of this study is to identify a panel of immunological molecular and cellular biomarkers able to predict the success of major dose-reduction or discontinuation of abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Tendon pathologies (enthesitis) are a characteristic component of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and are observed in 35% to 50% of PsA patients. The Achilles tendon is one of the most commonly affected sites. This condition often causes great morbidity and loss of quality of life, and response only suboptimal to current intervention strategies. One of the main obstacles for the development of effective treatment methods is that the disease mechanisms remain poorly understood. To our knowledge, no one has yet ascertained the presence and function of immune-competent cells and inflammatory markers in tendons tissue from PsA patients suffering from Achilles enthesitis.

The RISE Registry is an enhanced version of the ACR's Rheumatology Clinical Registry (RCR) and allows for a simplified entry process, while establishing a best-in-class resource to manage your patient population and improve patient care. RISE provides participants with an infrastructure for robust quality improvement activities leading to improved patient outcomes, patient population management and quality reporting related to rheumatic diseases and drug safety. RISE gives physicians and researchers the information they need to optimize patient outcomes, meet reporting requirements, and make discoveries that advance rheumatology.

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.

The objective of this study is to investigate the functional and clinical outcome after medial unicompartmental knee replacement using the Aesculap AG Univation X knee prosthesis compared to pre-operative data and a healthy control group.