Active clinical trials for "Arthritis, Reactive"

to investigate, whether one of the two alternative therapy strategies (antibiotic plus immunostimulation versus antibiotic plus immunosuppression) in chronic reactive arthritis is therapeutical superior to conventionel standardtherapy (DMARD). to investigate, whether one or more of the different therapy strategies cause an altered detection of bacterial DNA in the joint or colon. to measure the antigen-specific and -unspecific immune response (predominantly t-cell response) during therapy and correlate it with the clinical course. to gain knowledge from these analyses and the clinical course concerning the pathogenesis and the point of attack for possible therapies in chronic reactive arthritis. to compare cytokine-profiles of CD4- and CD8-positive T-cells from patients treated with infliximab to those treated with etanercept.

The aim of this study is to assess the incidence and the clinical and therapeutic characteristics of reactive arthritis and to compare them with those of a historical cohort. We hypothesised that improved hygiene together with prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections may have decreased the incidence of reactive arthritis.

This study will evaluate patients with inflammatory forms of arthritis within the first year of onset. The study will attempt to clarify factors that may predict disease course such as evolution into rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or other chronic inflammatory arthropathies. Synovial biopsies and synovial fluid will be obtained to search for microbial agents and other initiating and modulating factors that may be most readily distinguished early in the disease and to determine the stage of disease at which certain immunologic and hormonal changes become evident. The study will also search for genetic and other features that may be associated with specific forms of inflammatory arthropathies that might predict the subsequent clinical disease course or response to different agents used in treatment of RA, Reiter's syndrome and other types of chronic inflammatory arthropathies.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is late cardial involvement in children diagnosed with post streptococcal reactive arthritis after discontinuation of prophylactic antibiotic therapy.

This study will evaluate the 2-5 year outcome of a cohort of 250 patients with early synovitis, who were recruited into protocol 94-AR-0194 (The Pathogenesis of Inflammatory Synovitis: A Study of Early Arthritis). Clinical, radiographic, and functional outcome parameters, particularly those relating to articular damage and functional loss, will be evaluated and related back to clinical, serologic, immunogenetic, and pathologic variables identified at the onset of the arthropathy. A model will be generated which incorporates and weighs the variables in order to determine diagnostic and prognostic markers in the early stages of arthritis. Synovial tissue samples have been obtained from the entire cohort at the initial visit of protocol 94-AR-0194. Studies of these biopsies have so far demonstrated evidence for the presence of infectious agents in a proportion of the samples, and have generated information regarding the cytokine profiles in the early stages of synovitis. In an attempt to further define the pathogenetic mechanisms of synovitis longitudinally, biopsies will be repeated on selected subsets of the cohort. Specific questions to be answered relate to the persistence of microbial agents in the synovium, and to the evolution of cellular and molecular mechanisms which mediate the invasive, destructive potential of the synovial lesion. It is anticipated that these studies should prove valuable to clinicians who are attempting to stratify patients for therapeutic strategies, early in their disease course. They should also prove valuable in enhancing the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms of synovitis.