Antirheumatic Agents
Drugs that are used to treat RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid
A chronic systemic disease, primarily of the joints, marked by inflammatory changes in the synovial membranes and articular structures, widespread fibrinoid degeneration of the collagen fibers in mesenchymal tissues, and by atrophy and rarefaction of bony structures. Etiology is unknown, but autoimmune mechanisms have been implicated.
Sulfasalazine
Hydroxychloroquine
A chemotherapeutic agent that acts against erythrocytic forms of malarial parasites. Hydroxychloroquine appears to concentrate in food vacuoles of affected protozoa. It inhibits plasmodial heme polymerase. (From Gilman et al., Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 9th ed, p970)
Auranofin
An oral chrysotherapeutic agent for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Its exact mechanism of action is unknown, but it is believed to act via immunological mechanisms and alteration of lysosomal enzyme activity. Its efficacy is slightly less than that of injected gold salts, but it is better tolerated, and side effects which occur are potentially less serious.
Organogold Compounds
Methotrexate
Isoxazoles
Gold Sodium Thiomalate
A variable mixture of the mono- and disodium salts of gold thiomalic acid used mainly for its anti-inflammatory action in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It is most effective in active progressive rheumatoid arthritis and of little or no value in the presence of extensive deformities or in the treatment of other forms of arthritis.
Drug Therapy, Combination
Rheumatology
A subspecialty of internal medicine concerned with the study of inflammatory or degenerative processes and metabolic derangement of connective tissue structures which pertain to a variety of musculoskeletal disorders, such as arthritis.
Penicillamine
Severity of Illness Index
Arthrography
Joints
Rheumatoid Factor
Antibodies found in adult RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS patients that are directed against GAMMA-CHAIN IMMUNOGLOBULINS.
Arthritis, Psoriatic
A type of inflammatory arthritis associated with PSORIASIS, often involving the axial joints and the peripheral terminal interphalangeal joints. It is characterized by the presence of HLA-B27-associated SPONDYLARTHROPATHY, and the absence of rheumatoid factor.
Thiomalates
Thiomalates are medicinal compounds, such as dimethylamine thiomalate, that contain a thiomalic acid structure and are used in the treatment of conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis due to their anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
Foot Joints
The articulations extending from the ANKLE distally to the TOES. These include the ANKLE JOINT; TARSAL JOINTS; METATARSOPHALANGEAL JOINT; and TOE JOINT.
Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
Anti-inflammatory agents that are non-steroidal in nature. In addition to anti-inflammatory actions, they have analgesic, antipyretic, and platelet-inhibitory actions.They act by blocking the synthesis of prostaglandins by inhibiting cyclooxygenase, which converts arachidonic acid to cyclic endoperoxides, precursors of prostaglandins. Inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis accounts for their analgesic, antipyretic, and platelet-inhibitory actions; other mechanisms may contribute to their anti-inflammatory effects.
Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor
Treatment Outcome
Hand Joints
The articulations extending from the WRIST distally to the FINGERS. These include the WRIST JOINT; CARPAL JOINTS; METACARPOPHALANGEAL JOINT; and FINGER JOINT.
Rheumatic Diseases
Disorders of connective tissue, especially the joints and related structures, characterized by inflammation, degeneration, or metabolic derangement.
Tripterygium
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
Serum glycoprotein produced by activated MACROPHAGES and other mammalian MONONUCLEAR LEUKOCYTES. It has necrotizing activity against tumor cell lines and increases ability to reject tumor transplants. Also known as TNF-alpha, it is only 30% homologous to TNF-beta (LYMPHOTOXIN), but they share TNF RECEPTORS.
Arthritis
Arthritis is a general term used to describe inflammation in the joints, often resulting in pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility, which can be caused by various conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, or lupus.
Synovitis
Inflammation of a synovial membrane. It is usually painful, particularly on motion, and is characterized by a fluctuating swelling due to effusion within a synovial sac. (Dorland, 27th ed)
Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
Antibodies from non-human species whose protein sequences have been modified to make them nearly identical with human antibodies. If the constant region and part of the variable region are replaced, they are called humanized. If only the constant region is modified they are called chimeric. INN names for humanized antibodies end in -zumab.
United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
An agency of the PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE established in 1990 to "provide indexing, abstracting, translating, publishing, and other services leading to a more effective and timely dissemination of information on research, demonstration projects, and evaluations with respect to health care to public and private entities and individuals engaged in the improvement of health care delivery..." It supersedes the National Center for Health Services Research. The United States Agency for Health Care Policy and Research was renamed Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999.
Glucocorticoids
A group of CORTICOSTEROIDS that affect carbohydrate metabolism (GLUCONEOGENESIS, liver glycogen deposition, elevation of BLOOD SUGAR), inhibit ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE secretion, and possess pronounced anti-inflammatory activity. They also play a role in fat and protein metabolism, maintenance of arterial blood pressure, alteration of the connective tissue response to injury, reduction in the number of circulating lymphocytes, and functioning of the central nervous system.
Synovial Membrane
Prednisolone
Spondylitis, Ankylosing
Immunoglobulin G
Biological Products
Arthritis, Juvenile
Arthritis of children, with onset before 16 years of age. The terms juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) refer to classification systems for chronic arthritis in children. Only one subtype of juvenile arthritis (polyarticular-onset, rheumatoid factor-positive) clinically resembles adult rheumatoid arthritis and is considered its childhood equivalent.
Disease Progression
Product Surveillance, Postmarketing
Opportunistic Infections
Peptides, Cyclic
Interleukin 1 Receptor Antagonist Protein
Double-Blind Method
Wrist Joint
Drug Administration Schedule
Treatment Failure
Finger Joint
Remission Induction
Immunosuppressive Agents
Agents that suppress immune function by one of several mechanisms of action. Classical cytotoxic immunosuppressants act by inhibiting DNA synthesis. Others may act through activation of T-CELLS or by inhibiting the activation of HELPER CELLS. While immunosuppression has been brought about in the past primarily to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, new applications involving mediation of the effects of INTERLEUKINS and other CYTOKINES are emerging.
Early Diagnosis
Methods to determine in patients the nature of a disease or disorder at its early stage of progression. Generally, early diagnosis improves PROGNOSIS and TREATMENT OUTCOME.
Cohort Studies
Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Injections, Subcutaneous
Follow-Up Studies
Immunoconjugates
Combinations of diagnostic or therapeutic substances linked with specific immune substances such as IMMUNOGLOBULINS; MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES; or ANTIGENS. Often the diagnostic or therapeutic substance is a radionuclide. These conjugates are useful tools for specific targeting of DRUGS and RADIOISOTOPES in the CHEMOTHERAPY and RADIOIMMUNOTHERAPY of certain cancers.
Clinical Trials as Topic
Works about pre-planned studies of the safety, efficacy, or optimum dosage schedule (if appropriate) of one or more diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques selected according to predetermined criteria of eligibility and observed for predefined evidence of favorable and unfavorable effects. This concept includes clinical trials conducted both in the U.S. and in other countries.
Gold
Adrenal Cortex Hormones
Adrenal cortex hormones are steroid hormones produced by the outer portion of the adrenal gland, consisting of glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, and androgens, which play crucial roles in various physiological processes such as metabolism regulation, stress response, electrolyte balance, and sexual development and function.
Prospective Studies
Immunologic Factors
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Autoantibodies
Health Status
Disability Evaluation
Epidemiologic Methods
Osteoarthritis
A progressive, degenerative joint disease, the most common form of arthritis, especially in older persons. The disease is thought to result not from the aging process but from biochemical changes and biomechanical stresses affecting articular cartilage. In the foreign literature it is often called osteoarthrosis deformans.
C-Reactive Protein
Statistics, Nonparametric
A class of statistical methods applicable to a large set of probability distributions used to test for correlation, location, independence, etc. In most nonparametric statistical tests, the original scores or observations are replaced by another variable containing less information. An important class of nonparametric tests employs the ordinal properties of the data. Another class of tests uses information about whether an observation is above or below some fixed value such as the median, and a third class is based on the frequency of the occurrence of runs in the data. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed, p1284; Corsini, Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology, 1987, p764-5)
Placebos
Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.
Prednisone
A synthetic anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid derived from CORTISONE. It is biologically inert and converted to PREDNISOLONE in the liver.