Annals of the rheumatic diseases
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Costs of rheumatoid arthritis in Germany: a micro-costing approach based on healthcare payer's data sources.
To develop a systematic set of German cost data in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) based solely on valid healthcare payer's cost data sources. ⋯ Micro-costing based on healthcare payer's data provides a relatively conservative albeit highly accurate estimate of costs in RA. Both RA related and non-RA related costs must be taken into account. In gainfully employed patients and in patients who receive RA related retirement payments productivity costs exceed direct costs.
-
Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Phase I/II trial of autologous stem cell transplantation in systemic sclerosis: procedure related mortality and impact on skin disease.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma) in either its diffuse or limited skin forms has a high mortality when vital organs are affected. No treatment has been shown to influence the outcome or significantly affect the skin score, though many forms of immunosuppression have been tried. Recent developments in haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) have allowed the application of profound immunosuppression followed by HSCT, or rescue, to autoimmune diseases such as SSc. ⋯ Despite a higher procedure related mortality rate from HSCT in SSc compared with patients with breast cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the marked impact on skin score, a surrogate marker of mortality, the trend towards stabilisation of lung involvement, and lack of other treatment alternatives justify further carefully designed studies. If future trials incorporate inclusion and exclusion criteria based on this preliminary experience, the predicted procedure related mortality should be around 10%.
-
Multicenter Study
Long-term effectiveness of antimalarial drugs in rheumatic diseases.
The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term effectiveness between chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). ⋯ After adjusting for time and several confounders HCQ was less toxic but less effective than CQ. Only one case of probable/possible retinopathy was found. Therefore, we propose a careful baseline ophthalmological evaluation by an expert and then one or every two years if proper doses are used.