Hip and knee intraarticular injection of corticosteroids are frequently prescribed to alleviate pain or inflammation in patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, especially in the period leading up to scheduled arthroplasty. The safety of preoperative hip injections was discussed at a presentation at the recent 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Three million Americans are diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome each year.  New guidelines issued by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recommends a thorough patient history and specific physical examination maneuvers to diagnose CTS; specifically, they do not recommed the use of MRI for CTS diagnosis. The guidelines are available at orthoguidelines.org.

Muscle weakness was independently associated with disability in patients with scleroderma, and as muscle weakness worsened, disability also increased, according to findings from a retrospective, nested, case control study.

Chronic liver disease, and in particular hepatitis B infection, is a contraindication to methotrexate (MTX) use.

Clinicians often face the issue of using a TNF inhibitor (TNFi) in patients with heart failure or cardiac disease. Here are the facts and data necessary to make a cogent decision to use or avoid TNFi.

Two  population-based cohorts from Ontario (ON) and Quebec (QC) were used to assess if early DMARD influenced the need for joint replacement surgery among elderly patients with incident rheumatoid arthritis.

A recent review compared elderly-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA) to those with younger-onset rheumatoid arthritis (YORA) to assess treatment responses and safety issues with biologics and DMARDS. EORA is generally defined as the onset of rheumatoid arthritis after age 60 years.

The spectrum and extent of the Zika virus is still evolving.  Lancet has reported 42 patients diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) during the Zika virus outbreak in French Polynesia.

It is estimated that nearly 30% of psoriasis patients will develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA).  This prevalence was studied by performing MRI scans on asymptomatic psoriasis (n=56) and 30 control patients without arthritis.  MRI of the hands were scored for synovitis, osteitis, tenosynovitis and periarticular inflammation.  Psoriasis patients underwent quantitative CT to detect erosions and enthesitis.

Most people can’t live without their cell phone. But does the device define the modern medicine man and woman?  

Using hospitalization claims from 7 states, reasearchers studied the risk of cardiovascular outcomes following surgery in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.  (Citation source http://buff.ly/1TDsVG6)

Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title."

Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SoJIA) is one of the most common underlying etiologies to the macrophage activation syndrome (MAS).  

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers enrolled over 3,500 U.S. drivers, aged 16 to 98 years, and followed them for a three-year period after rigging their vehicles with internal video cameras and devices to track speed and location.  (Citation source http://buff.ly/1VFuti2)

Our inner thoughts are usually negative, critical or pessimistic. Negative thinking is ubiquitous, and may be responsible for indecision or ill-choices.  How to identify it and deal with it in patient care is an unsavory challenge often left undone.