Arthritis chronic polyarthritis

In contradistinction to the various types of chemically-induced and anaphylactic arthritis which have been mentioned above, adjuvant arthritis appears to simulate closely the inflammatory reactions seen in rheumatoid arthritis in humans. Stoerk, Bielinski and Budzilovitch first reported the development of a chronic polyarthritis in rats, and this work was later elaborated by a number of other workers " . The reaction seems to be a type of delayed hypersensitivity response , although recent work suggests that this may not be so. ... 

Several small uncontrolled pilot studies have indicated that most patients with psoriatic arthritis improve when treated with etretinate at 0.5-1 mg/kg/day (Brackertz and Muller, 1979 Rosenthal 1979 Stollenwerk et al., 1981 Kaplan etal., 1983). In one report the etretinate-induced improvement allowed patients to decrease or discontinue their use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents. In another report patients with chronic polyarthritis similarly improved. RePUVA also led to improvement in five of six patients with psoriatic arthritis. However, because healing of cutaneous lesions of psoriasis with PUVA is associated with an improvement in joint disease, controlled studies are needed to confirm that etretinate is effective in psoriatic arthritis and that the effect is not secondary to cutaneous improvement. 

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune chronic inflammatory joint disease. It is a progressive symmetrical, destructive and deforming polyarthritis affecting proxi-... 

Juvenile chronic polyarthropathy (62) and reactive arthritis (63) have been attributed to hepatitis B vaccine. Erythema nodosum and polyarthritis occurred the day after Engerix-B vaccine administration (64). The authors referred to reports of three other cases of polyarthritis in the literature. 

There was an unexpectedly high incidence of rheumatoid and lupus-like symptoms (27 of 137 patients), namely arthralgia, arthritis, myalgia, and Raynaud s phenomenon, in patients with myeloproliferative disorders taking interferon alfa alone or combined with interferon gamma (365). However, only a minority of affected patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus. By contrast, systemic autoimmune diseases appeared to be genuine but very rare complications of interferon alfa in chronic hepatitis C, with only one case of lupus-like syndrome and two cases of polyarthritis in a survey of 677 patients (18). 

Tausch G, BroU H, Eberl R. D-PeniciUamin (Artamin) als Basistherapie bei chronischer Polyarthritis. [D-penicUlamine (Artamin) as basic therapeutic agent in the treatment of chronic rheumatoid arthritis.] Wien Khn Wochenschr 1973 85(4) 59-63. 

Psoriatic arthritis occurs in approximately 15% of patients with psoriasis. The cause is unknown. Skin lesions are minimal with a polyarthritis affecting particularly the small joints of the hand in an asymmetrical pattern. Usually the disease is mild but chronic. Sometimes the joint involvement is similar to that seen in rheumatoid arthritis, that is, symmetrical polyarthritis. Rarely, the disease is rapidly progressing with joint destruction. The serum is rheumatoid factor negative. 

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the commonest inflammatoiy and destructive arthropathy in the world with a prevalence of 1000 per 100000. It is characterized by a chronic symmetrical polyarthritis that leads to joint damage in most patients. The commonest affeaed joints are the small joints of the hands and feet but it can involve any synovial joint. Rheumatoid fector is present in over 70% of the patients. The long-term prognosis of RA is poor as most patients develop significant disability despite treatment (1). Hence it is a major sodo-economical burden. In the UK, the cost of RA was estimated at 1.3 billion/year in 1992 (2). 

Echinacea preparations, especially oral (liquid extract), topical (ointment), and parenteral products of the firesh aboveground preparations of E. purpurea, and, to a lesser extent, the roots of E. angustifolia and E. pallida, are used in Germany for the external treatment of hard-to-heal wounds, eczema, burns, psoriasis, berpes simplex, and so on. As immu-nostimulants internally a prophylactic at the onset of cold and flu symptoms and for treatment of Candida albicans infections, chronic respiratory infections, prostatitis, polyarthritis (rheumatoid arthritis), and so on. ... 

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