The Journal of Musculoskeletal Medicine Vol 26 No 3

March 28, 2012

Assessing function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a challenging but important part of the rheumatology office visit.

March 28, 2012

The cause of neck pain, or cervicalgia, can usually be identified by history and physical exam. Learn the provocative maneuvers and "red flag" symptoms to exclude malignancy and reveal radiculopathy or myelpathy.

March 28, 2012

The original antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) classification criteria (the Sapporo criteria), published in 1999, helped galvanize research in this disorder.1 New clinical, laboratory, and experimental insights gained since then were addressed at the Eleventh International Congress on Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Sydney, Australia, in 2006.

March 28, 2012

Daily activities and occupational identity may be affected profoundly in the first 12 months after a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), resulting in significant life changes.

March 28, 2012

A walking plus resistance training (WRT) intervention is more effective than walking for improving several body composition measures and glucose control in overweight and obese African American women.

March 28, 2012

In persons with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), incident thrombotic events are associated with a somewhat high risk of acute work loss and musculoskeletal manifestations and neuropsychiatric events with more delayed work loss.

March 28, 2012

The presence of crystals alone in synovial fluid in patients with acute monoarthritis cannot exclude infection, because septic arthritis and crystal arthritis often coexist.

March 28, 2012

Low-energy diet–induced weight loss leads to independent losses of leg muscle tissue and absolute knee muscle strength in obese patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

March 28, 2012

Fewer than half of patient visits to US physicians with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a nationally representative sample were associated with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD).

April 02, 2009

Heel pain (calcaneodynia) is most commonly due to plantar fasciitis, but has many other causes including nerve entrapment, stress fracture, and sciatica. This review describes an overall approach to diagnosis, discusses conservative treatments and highlights the most prevalent surgical procedures.

April 01, 2009

With recent advances in diagnostic capabilities, rehabilitation, and surgical techniques, patients with rotator cuff disease and injuries usually can expect a favorable outcome. Successful treatment requires a careful awareness of a diagnostic and treatment algorithm that takes into consideration comorbidities that may complicate a patient's rotator cuff disorder.

March 31, 2009

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), or scleroderma, is a condition of connective tissue characterized by inflammation and fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. The disease is rare but associated with significant morbidity and mortality.

March 30, 2009

The first comprehensive, evidence-based clinical practice guideline to help clinicians prescribe opioid analgesics for patients who have chronic noncancer pain was published recently in a collaborative effort between the American Pain Society (APS) and the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM). A panel of pain management experts representing the organizations concluded that opioid pain medications are safe and effective for carefully selected, well-monitored patients.

March 29, 2009

The features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are common in the lifetime course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and are significantly associated with an increased mortality risk, even after adjusting for well-described RA-specific predictors of mortality. For some SLE features, the increased risk may be as high as 6-fold.

March 28, 2009

Greater quadriceps strength protects against cartilage loss at the lateral compartment of the patellofemoral joint in persons with knee osteoarthritis (OA), and persons with greater quadriceps strength are likely to have less knee pain and better physical function. Greater quadriceps strength has no influence on cartilage loss at the tibiofemoral joint.

March 27, 2009

A high-intensity strength and endurance exercise program has an impact on a variety of parameters of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in older women. General-purpose exercise programs primarily designed to reduce bone fracture risk also are effective in reducing coronary heart disease risk factors.