A member of the design team, Dr. Kevin Curran, spoke at the Translational Medicine Conference and said that [...]]]> University of Ulster scientists have designed a new robotic glove that is meant to be used to help improve how rheumatoid arthritis is diagnosed in people. The new invention was announced at the Derry-Londonderry international healthcare innovators conference.

A member of the design team, Dr. Kevin Curran, spoke at the Translational Medicine Conference and said that the point of the wireless glove is to help make assessments of how mobile small joints are more accurate.

The glove is being manufactured by the Tyndall National Institute in Cork and Curran stated that they expect it to be ready by the end of August for use. Curran went on to explain that for several months the team has been working on the concept of creating the glove using a store purchased glove, but the new glove is going to be ground breaking due to the fact that it was created using specific software design and made directly according to their own specifications.

Other members involves in the project team including James Connolly and Senior Lecturer Dr. Joan Condell. Connolly is a PhD researcher that designed a monitor interface for the device that is important for tracking, measuring, and recording stiffness in the fingers. The project also includes collaboration with Western Health and Social Trust rheumatology consultant Dr. Philip Gardiner who explained that there has never been a medical tool created that was able to adequately measure stiffness that is caused by arthritis.

He went on to explain that the methods that are used now are still quite simple and have been around without any change for many decades. Therefore, the new glove is needed in order to create better measurements so that people can manage their condition better on their own. The two day conference was put together by C-TRIC, which is found in Waterside and sits on the Altnagelvin Hospital campus; which is one of the largest acute hospitals in Northern Ireland.

The conference takes place every year and has become a vehicle for translation medicine which is growing quickly and spawned plenty of new novel healthcare ideas. One of the primary stakeholders of C-TRIC is the University of Ulster which is notable since C-TRIC is the only type of facility in the country that links together business people linking clinicians, and academics all together in one place to help forward the knowledge behind translational medicine.

The organisation is made up of 150 academics, researchers, healthcare practitioners, bio-industry R&D managers, and technologists that attend the conference and participate actively in the exchange of ideas.

Some of the prominent members of C-TRIC include Executive Director of Business Development at Partners HealthCare Trung Do, Senior Vice President of Moderna Therapeutics of Boston Dr. Susan Whoriskey, and CEO of Healthrageous Rick Lee. This year’s theme for the conference was ‘Inflammatory Processes and Cardiovascular Disease’ and resulted in the release of many different healthcare projects.

Of course, the problem is that everyone wants GP’s to think the way that they do, but this is not a realistic goal as they have their own perspectives and [...]]]> According to Arthritis Care, GP’s are not properly aware of osteoarthritis, but then this is a common complaint among charities that deal with a special interest.

Of course, the problem is that everyone wants GP’s to think the way that they do, but this is not a realistic goal as they have their own perspectives and views that are developed as a result of their own responses and training.

Polyclinics are thought to the be the solution by Lord Darzi, who believes that by allowing GP’s to work together they will be able to pick and choose so that each has their own special interest and can follow a series of higher level training within that specialist area. As a result, they can then refer patients between each other so that the patients receive the best health care for their conditions.

The idea for polyclinics is based on the idea of hospital doctors which sort their patients based on their specialties; however, the problem with using the same principal for GP practice is that it does not account for the most common reasons that patients visit their GPs. For instance, on average a GP will only diagnose cancers four times a year, or an episode of Crohn’s once every six years. Therefore, charities asking GP’s to be specialised in these areas would be both ridiculous and unnecessary.

For the most part the GPs are consulted because of simple infections, depression, or because the patient is suffering from some type of pain. Often, the nurse practitioners can handle these conditions but it is helpful for a GP to know them so that they also have a good idea of a broad range of conditions.

Most patients do not arrive at the GP with a label on their heads explaining what the problem is, therefore, the GP has to know how to take a handful of symptoms and turn them into a real diagnosis so that they can help the patients. Arthritis Care is concerned because they state that it takes three visits to a GP before a diagnosis of osteoarthritis is made on average.

On the back of the safety data, the company have been given permission to go ahead with a new batch of [...]]]> Safety data has recently been released by the company TiGenix about a study they have recently been conducting in phase 2 which is looking at a drug which could be effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis.

On the back of the safety data, the company have been given permission to go ahead with a new batch of patients in order to test the medication further.

The head of the company, Eduardo Bravo has commented, “This is a key milestone in bringing this drug to market. It is the final step to we are taking before we make it widely available and it is being conducted to work out what the highest dose that can be safely administered is.

This makes sure that this new rheumatoid arthritis drug will not be held back by safety factors which might be unnecessary. We want this drug to be as effective as possible in treating patients and this is why this final stage of testing is so important. We expect to receive the results of the trial by early next year.”

The study is being conducted at several centres in the United States and over 50 patients are going to be receiving the treatment as part of the study. They are going to be divided into three groups and are going to be given different doses of the drug to see how well they can effectively tolerate it. The study figures will show how safe the drug can be for patients when it comes onto the open market.

These are generally very effective at treating arthritis but they do have some side effects and are commonly associated with irritation of the stomach and gullet and can even be associated with an increased risk of developing [...]]]> In the easing of pain from arthritis it is very common to take a drug called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

These are generally very effective at treating arthritis but they do have some side effects and are commonly associated with irritation of the stomach and gullet and can even be associated with an increased risk of developing an ulcer or having stomach bleeding.

Often when these medications are being prescribed by doctors to people with arthritis they are used in combination with other medications. This generally ensures that the side-effects are minimised and this is often done through the use of medication known as a proton pump inhibitor. This type of drug is also known as a gastric protective agent and it is known that patients must take the drug on a regular basis if it is to be most effective.

A recent study which is being conducted in the Netherlands and Italy has looked at extensive medical records to determine whether a type of gastric protective agent known as a COX-2 inhibitor has reduced effectiveness if not taken on a daily basis.

The researchers involved with the study looked at medical records to see how regularly the patients had been taking the medication and then they looked at the number of ulcers that it occurred in these patients. They compared the figures for those who are taking the protective agent regularly, and those who weren’t.

Over 15,000 medical records were looked at and over 70 people suffered from an ulcer during this period. The study found that there was a positive relationship between those people who took the protective drug regularly, and those who failed to do so. Those who are not taking it regularly fell into a high risk group of developing an ulcer.

The study was able to draw up an estimate that said that patients who missed the drug for three days every month were 10 percent more likely to have complications associated with taking arthritis medication. It should be noted that the study only looked to medical records and could not directly tell how often patients were taking the medication.

A great deal of research has yet [...]]]> A new drug that could prevent the development of arthritis is currently being tested in the UK. The drug is currently in the very early stages of testing but it is thought that it could relieve much of the stiffness and swelling seen in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

A great deal of research has yet to be conducted on the drug, but researchers have said that it has very exciting potential. Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that affects over 300,000 people in the UK and it causes a severe amount of pain and inflammation in certain joints. The disease is caused when the immune system attacks joints in the body.

The leader of the study is Dr Graeme O’Boyle who is based in the University of Newcastle. He has said about the treatments, “When someone suffers from arthritis, their joints tell the white blood cells to attack them.

Traditional treatments work by stopping the joints telling the blood cells to attack them in a very slow way. This new treatment works in a very different way; it targets the white blood cells, and effectively blindfolds them so they don’t know how to attack the joints.”

In early testing, a mouse that was genetically engineered to have an immune system similar to a human, did not have its joints attacked by its own immune system while on the medication.

The study has been funded by Arthritis Research UK and the medical director of the charity is Professor Alan Silman who commented, “Not all patients respond to the drug treatments currently available on the market. This research, while in its early stages, will potentially be able to work in patients who have not responded to current medication.” The drug is being prepared to enter clinical trials with humans in the near future.

Preliminary results have shown that the new treatment has a greater effect [...]]]> A new monotherapy treatment that has been developed by the pharmaceutical company Roche has been shown to have a significantly better effect on rheumatoid arthritis when compared with another type of monotherapy treatment, adalimumab. The type of treatment developed by Roche is called RoActemra.

Preliminary results have shown that the new treatment has a greater effect on reducing the amount of disease in patients in less than six months, when compared with the previous type of therapy. The results were statistically significant, and showed that many patients were experiencing a remission of their arthritis.

The treatment seems to be about as safe as the previous offering and the number of adverse events experienced by test patients was very similar. The product development manager at Roche is Hal Barron and he has commented, “This is just adding to the body of evidence that this method of treating rheumatoid arthritis is more effective than the already existing one.

The trials that we are conducting are providing more information about the treatment and will be able to give patients more information about using it.”

The study investigating the differences between the two treatments is called ADACTA, and it is the first study of its kind. Monotherapy treatments are pursued in patients who have not successfully responded to treatment with methotrexate, this is quite a common problem as some people are not tolerant of the medication. In this case the medication is given through monotherapy and it seems like the RoActemra treatment is going to be the most effective way to do this in the future.

Arthritis is a major condition that affects many people all over the world, however, there has not traditionally been a great many successful medications for treating it.

Those that have had some effect on the condition generally come with side-effects that affect patients gastrointestinal tract.

Vimovo was a new treatment that was developed for the condition, and [...]]]>

Arthritis is a major condition that affects many people all over the world, however, there has not traditionally been a great many successful medications for treating it.

Those that have had some effect on the condition generally come with side-effects that affect patients gastrointestinal tract.

Vimovo was a new treatment that was developed for the condition, and was known to be easier on the stomach. A significant amount of marketing from the pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, led many people to think that the medication would be very successful.

This however, has not been the case and the number of sales has been significantly below what analysts expected. The drug was actually developed by a much smaller pharmaceutical research company, Pozen, and after their success of securing a deal with AstraZeneca, they went on to develop a second drug by themselves. The failure for Vimovo to sell as analysts predicted, has made investors in Pozen’s new drug rather anxious.

The new drug by the company is currently ahead of its testing schedule and by the end of March it is expected that phase three trials will have yielded important data. It is expected by the third quarter of the year that an application by the company will have been filed with the United States Food and Drug Administration.

The chief commercial officer of Pozen is Liz Cermak and she has said that the company are currently looking for a partner who will help them bring the drug to market. Once again, in a change of strategy from their original plan, they are looking for another large pharmaceutical company to bring their drug to the international market.

They have also said they would consider negotiations with a smaller company who can focus on a specific region, rather than work in a global context.

The sad fact is that this debilitating disease is not reserved for the elderly and in Australia alone, 1 in 1000 children every year are diagnosed with JIA, or Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

While this doesn’t seem a huge figure, [...]]]> Arthritis is one of those diseases that we associate with old age, along with zimmer frames and wrinkles.

The sad fact is that this debilitating disease is not reserved for the elderly and in Australia alone, 1 in 1000 children every year are diagnosed with JIA, or Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

While this doesn’t seem a huge figure, there are thousands of cases that go undiagnosed and therefore untreated.

Even some doctors tend to think of Arthritis as an old people’s illness, and the pain many children suffer form is often passed off as ‘growing pains’ or even in some cases as behavioural problems. Another problem with diagnosing juvenile Arthritis is that there is no set test to determine Arthritis in young children.

It is a little known fact that Arthritis can occur in children as young as a few months old, and can be triggered off by something as innocuous as a cold which attacks their immature autoimmune system. If it isn’t correctly diagnosed and treated, the pain that the children suffer is horrendous and they can even end up crippled and unable to live a full and active life once they are adults.

A child with JIA may display symptoms such as tenderness, swelling, pain, redness, stiffness and warmth around their joints. There are many children, who, for whatever reason, will not complain about being in pain, and as symptoms vary between individual children, these can be the ones that can slip through the net and go undiagnosed and untreated.

If you suspect that your child may be suffering from JIA, either in silence or otherwise, get them to a doctor as soon as possible. Don’t be fobbed off, and if they are unwilling to refer you to a hospital, ask for one and chase it up to make sure it has been made. The sooner they are started on the correct dosage of the right medication the better it will be for them, both now and for the future.

Medications used to treat JIA include pain killers, anti-inflammatories, steroids and injections. Depending on the severity, physiotherapy sessions may also be recommended. As with older sufferers, discomfort will vary according to weather conditions and the activities that the children are taking part in. There are also many online support groups for parents of kids with JIA, which many find extremely beneficial.

Osteoarthritis afflicts at least eight million people in the UK, including around 12,000 children, according to recent reports.

In general, arthritis is inflammation of the joints in the body; osteoarthritis involves [...]]]> There are many forms of arthritis and varying degrees of severity, but one of the most common and potentially disabling forms is osteoarthritis, or degenerative arthritis.

Osteoarthritis afflicts at least eight million people in the UK, including around 12,000 children, according to recent reports.

In general, arthritis is inflammation of the joints in the body; osteoarthritis involves the breakdown of cartilage in the joints. It occurs most often in weight-bearing joints such as knees, hips and spine, but it can also affect other joints like fingers and neck.

Cartilage is the cushion over the ends of the bones in joints that basically serves as a shock absorber. When it deteriorates and loses its elasticity, tendons and ligaments are stretched, and bone ends may rub together, causing inflammation and pain.

There are several known factors in the development of osteoarthritis that include heredity, being overweight, injury and overuse of the joint. New research has also make the connection between osteoarthritis and shortened telomeres. These form the ‘caps’ at the end of chromosomes, and each time a cell divides and replicates its DNA in the new cell, a bit of the telomere is used up – sort of like a pencil eraser. When it gets too short, the cell can no longer reproduce; thus the aging process.

The new studies indicate that shortening can be accelerated by stressors like compression or oxidative stress (caused by smoking, for example.) The good news is that the shortening process can be slowed with the intake of fish oil rich in Omega-3 fatty acid and Vitamin D. Exercise and a healthy diet will also considerably reduce your odds of developing osteoarthritis.