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• General Rheumatology

  Home Page - Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases

  Arthritis and other rheumatic diseases are characterized by pain, swelling, and limited movement in joints and connective tissues in the body. Anatomy of a Joint, About Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases, Diagnosing Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases, Common Types of Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases, Treatment for Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Diseases are described.
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• Rheumatoid Arthritis

  Rheumatoid Arthritis

  Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term (chronic) disease that causes inflammation of the joints. The inflammation can be so severe that it affects how the joints and other parts of the body look and function.
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1. Ranganath VK, Elashoff D, Khanna D, Park, GS, Paulus HE, Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. Age-Adjustment Corrects for Apparent Differences in ESR and CRP Values at the Onset of Sero-positive Rheumatoid Arthritis in Younger and Older Patients. J Rheumatol. 2005 Jun; 32(6):1040-2. PMID: 15940764
2. Ranganath VK*, Khanna D*, Fitzgerald J, Park GS, Altman RD, Elashoff D, Gold RH, Sharp JT, Furst DE, Paulus HE; Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. Increased radiographic damage scores at the onset of seropositive rheumatoid arthritis in older patients are associated with osteoarthritis of the hands, but not with more rapid progression of damage. Arthritis Rheum. 2005 Aug;52(8):2284-92. PMID:16052588
3. Khanna D, Oh M, Furst DE, Ranganath VK, Gold R, Sharp JT, Park G, Keystone EC, and Paulus HE, for the Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. Evaluation of the Preliminary Definitions of Minimal Disease Activity and Remission in an Early Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis Cohort. Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Apr 15;57(3):440- 7. PMID: 17394230
4. Ranganath VK*, Yoon J*, Park GS, Furst DE, Khanna D, Elashoff D, Jawaheer D, Sharp JT, Gold RH, Keystone EC, Paulus HE, for the Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. Comparison of Composite Measures of Disease Activity in an Early Sero-positive Rheumatoid Arthritis Cohort. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007 Dec;66(12):1633-40. Epub 2007 May 1. PMID: 17472996
5. MacLean C, Maglione M, McMahon M, Ranganath V, Suttorp M, Mojica W, Timmer M, Alexander A, Desai SH, McNamara M, Newberry S, Zhou A, Chen S, Carter J, Tingale C, Valentine D, Grossman J. Comparative Effectiveness of Treatments to Prevent Fractures in Men and Women with Low Bone Density or Osteoporosis. Ann Intern Med. 2008 Feb 5;148(3):197-213. PMID: 18087050
6. MacLean C, Alexander A, Carter J, Chen S, Desai SB, Grossman J, Maglione M, McMahon M, McNamara M, Mojica W, Newberry S, Ranganath V, Suttorp M, Timmer M, Tringale C, Valentine D, Zhou A. Comparative Effectiveness of Treatments To Prevent Fractures in Men and Women With Low Bone Density or Osteoporosis [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2007 Dec. PMID: 20704035
7. Ranganath VK, Harold Paulus, Alina Onofrei, Dinesh Khanna, George Reed, David A. Elashoff, Joel Kremer, Daniel E. Furst. Functional Improvement After RA Patients Start a New Disease Modifying Anti-rheumatic Drug Associated with Frequent Changes in DMARDs: CORRONA Database. J Rheumatol. 2008 Oct;35(10):1966-71. PMID: 18785317
8. Amjadi S, Maranian P, Paulus H, Kaplan RM, Ranganath V, Furst D, Khanna D for the Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists* Validating and Assessing the Sensitivity of the Health Assessment Questionnaire- Disability Index Derived SF-6D in Patients with Early Aggressive Rheumatoid Arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2009 Jun;36(6):1150-1157. PMID: 19369459
9. Furst DE, Chang H, Greenberg J, Ranganath VK, Reed G, Ozturk ZE, Kremer J. Prevalence of Low Hemoglobin Levels in Association with Other Disease Parameters in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Evidence from the CORRONA Registry. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2009 Jul-Aug;27(4):560-6. PMID: 19772785
10. Weng HH, Ranganath VK, Khanna D, Oh M, Furst DE, Park GS, Elashoff D, Sharp JT, Gold RH, Peter JB, Paulus HE, and the Western Consortium of Practicing Rheumatologists. Equivalent Responses to DMARDs Initiated at Any Time During the First 15 Months After Symptom Onset in Seropositive RA Patients: An Observational Study. J Rheumatol. 2010 Mar;37(3):550-7. PMID: 20110517
11. Weng HH, Ranganath VK, Oh M, Park GS, Khanna D, Clements PJ, Seibold JR, Elashoff D, Furst DE. Differences in Presentation of Younger and Older Systemic Sclerosis Patients in Clinical Trials. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2010 Sep- Oct;28(5 Suppl 62):S10-4. Epub 2010 Nov 3. PMID: 21050539
12. Grossman JM, Gordon R, Ranganath VK, Deal C, Caplan L, Chen W, Curtis J, Furst DE, McMahon M, Patkar NM, Volkmann E, Saag KG. American College of Rheumatology 2010 Recommendations for the Prevention and Treatment of Glucocorticoid Induced Osteoporosis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010 Jul 26. PMID: 20662044
13. Grossman JM, Ranganath VK, Chen W, Furst DE, McMahon M, Volkmann E, Rebecca Gordon, Deal C, Caplan L, Curtis JR, Patkar NM, Saag KG. Reply. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2012 Jan;64(1):157-8. doi: 10.1002/acr.20650. PMID: 20662044
14. Charles-Schoeman C, Lee YY, Grijalva V, Amjadi S, Fitzgerald J, Ranganath VK, Taylor M, McMahon M, Paulus HE, Reddy ST. Cholesterol efflux by high density lipoproteins is impaired in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis. 2012 Jan 20. PMID: 22267330
15. Irwin MR, Olmstead R, Carrillo C, Sadeghi N, FitzGerald JD, Ranganath VK, Nicassio PM. Sleep Loss Exacerbates Fatigue, Depression, and Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis. SLEEP, Vol. 35, No. 4, 2012. PMID: 22467992
16. Jawaheer D, Messing S, Reed G, Ranganath VK, Kremer JM, Louie JS, Khanna D, Greenberg JD, Furst DE. Men are significantly more likely than women to achieve sustained remission in the CORRONA Cohort of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2012 Jun 21. PMID: 22730408
17. McAlindon T, Kissin E, Nazarian L, Ranganath VK, Prakash S, Taylor M, Bannuru RR, Srinivasan S, Gogia M, Maureen A McMahon, Grossman J, Kafaja S, FitzGerald J, American College of Rheumatology Report on Reasonable Use of Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography in Rheumatology Clinical Practice. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2012 Nov;64(11):1625-40. PMID: 23111854
18. Doyle MK, Rahman MU, Frederick B, Birbara C, de Vries D, Toedter G, Wu X, Chen D, Ranganath VK, Westerman M, Furst DE. Effects of Subcutaneous and Intravenous Golimumab on Inflammatory Biomarkers in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis; Rheumatology (Oxford). 2013 Feb 14. PMID: 23418046
19. Curtis JR, McVie T, Mikuls TR, Renolyds R, Navarro-Millán I, O’Dell JR, Moreland LW, Bridges Jr. SL, Ranganath VK, Cofield SS. Clinical Response within 12 Weeks as a Predictor of Future Low Disease Activity in Early RA Patients: Results from the TEAR Trial. J Rheumatol. 2013 Apr 15. PMID: 23588939
20. O'Dell JR, Curtis JR, Mikuls T, Cofield SS, Bridges Jr SL, Ranganath VK , Moreland LW for the TEAR trial Investigators. Validation of Methotrexate-First Strategy in Early RA: The randomized double-blind 2-year TEAR trial. Arthritis Rheum. 2013 May 17. PMID: 23686414
21. Ranganath VK, Maranian P, Elashoff D, Woodworth T, Khanna D, Hahn T, Sarkisian C, Kremer JM, Furst DE (1) and Paulus HE(1), (1) co-senior authors who shared equally. Comorbidities are Associated with Poorer Outcomes in Community Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2013 Jun 27. PMID: 23813577
22. Ranganath VK, Strand V, Peterfy CG, Ostergaard M, Deodhar A, Landewe R, Troum O, Conaghan PG. The Utility of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Assessing Structural Damage in Randomized Controlled Trials in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Report from the Imaging Group of the American College of Rheumatology RA Clinical Trials Task Force. Arthritis Rheum. 2013 Jul 9. PMID: 23840013
23. Charles-Schoeman C, Lee YY, Shahbazian A, Gorn AH, Fitzgerald J, Ranganath VK, Taylor M, Ragavendra N, McMahon M, Elashoff D, Reddy ST. Association of Paraoxonase 1 gene polymorphisms and enzyme activity with carotid plaque in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum. 2013 Aug 5. PMID: 23917967
24. Martin WJ, Shim M, Paulus HE, Chaudhari S, Feng J, Elashoff D, Hahn TJ, and Ranganath VK; RADIUS Investigators. Older age at rheumatoid arthritis onset and comorbidities correlate with less Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index and Clinical Disease Activity Index response to etanercept in the RADIUS 2 registry. J Clin Rheumatol. 2014 Sep;20(6):301-305.
25. Ranganath VK, Motamedi K, Haavardsholm EA, Maranian P, Elashoff D, Chen W, Duffy EL, McQueen F, Moreland L, Louie J, Amjadi S, O’Dell J, Cofield SS, Curtis JR, Bathon JM, St.Clair EW, Bridges Jr. SL, Paulus HE. Comprehensive Appraisal of MRI Findings in Sustained RA Remission: Sub-Study of the TEAR Trial. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2015 Jan 7. doi: 10.1002/acr.22541.
26. Troum OM, Pimienta OL, Schmidt WA, Ostergaard M, D'Agostino MA, Gaylis N, Arnold W6, Ben-Artzi A, Ranganath V, Seraphine JL, Peterfy C. Proceedings from the 7th Annual International Society for Musculoskeletal Imaging in Rheumatology (ISEMIR) conference. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2015 Mar 3. pii: S0049-0172(15)00046-3.

A Role for MRI and Ultrasound in RA? (MedpageToday) May 2016

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