Rheumatology Medical News about Etanercept, HRQoL, JIA

Become a Member Today!
Register

Most Viewed Abstracts

1. Report Shows Shift in Starting Salaries for Physicians

2. Rapid correction of low vitamin D status in nursing home residents

3. 2008 Exclusive Survey—Earnings: Good news for primary care income

4. Medicare pay-for-reporting effort draws fire from frustrated doctors

5. Allopurinol-induced recurrent dress syndrome: Pathophysiology and treatment

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

(Click the title below to leave the MDLinx Network and go to the Journal's Website)

Major improvements in Health-Related Quality of Life during the use of etanercept in patients with previously refractory Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, 07/22/09

Prince FHM et al. - Study shows that Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of pts with refractory juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) can substantially be improved by the use of etanercept on all aspects impaired by JIA.

Methods

An evaluation of the changes in HRQoL in pts with refractory JIA while treated with etanercept
53 JIA pts from seven Dutch centres; HRQoL measured by the CHAQ, CHQ and HUI3 at start and after 3, 15 and 27 mo of treatment
At the same time points the following JIA disease activity variables were collected:
- Physician’s global assessment through the VAS
- Number of active and limited joints, and
- Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
Statistical method Linear Mixed Models was used to assess outcomes over time

Results

During etanercept therapy HRQoL improved dramatically on both disease specific and generic HRQoL outcomes
Significant improvements were shown after 3 mo; improvements continued at least up to 27 mo
Disease specific CHAQ, including VAS pain and well-being, showed an mprovement on all domains
Generic health-profile measure CHQ improved on all the health concepts except for "family cohesion", which was normal
The generic preference-based HUI3 showed impairment and subsequently significant improvement on the more specific domains ("pain", "ambulatory", "dexterity")
In accordance also disease activity variables improved significantly over time

<< Previous
Menopause, postmenopausal hormone use and risk of incident gout

Next >>
Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class II alleles,...