PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Psoriatic arthritis patients need better screening, warns panel of experts

2014-07-23
(Press-News.org) Leading experts have joined together for the first time to call for better screening of psoriatic arthritis to help millions of people worldwide suffering from the condition.

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) causes painful joint inflammation and can cause irreversible joint damage if left untreated.

PsA tends to affect people with the skin condition psoriasis, which causes a red, scaly rash, and affects approximately two per cent of people in the UK.

Around one in five go on to develop PsA – usually within ten years of the initial skin problem being diagnosed.

Coming together to tackle the gaps in the treatment and diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, expert rheumatologists, dermatologists and patient representatives from Europe and North America formed the Psoriatic Arthritis Forum, and have now made a series of recommendations to combat the condition.

The recommendations were published the journal Arthritis Care and Research.

They included: Developing a screening tool for dermatologists and primary care doctors to identify suspected PsA patients Raising awareness about the progression, health-related quality of life components, and other health issues associated with PsA Improving communication between healthcare providers and patients

Dr Philip Helliwell, of the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, a member of the Psoriatic Arthritis Forum, said:

"We believe up to 50% of psoriasis patients with psoriatic arthritis are undiagnosed, living with sore, stiff and tender joints, without understanding what is causing this pain. Our review points the way forward for effective screening and treatment, in the hope that detection rates of the condition are improved and patients enjoy a better quality of life."

In addition to better screening, experts have called for improved referrals of patients, as well as an algorithm – a step-by-step procedure for primary care physicians - to be developed to help community physicians on patient evaluation and treatment decisions.

Dr Helliwell added: "These recommendations serve as a guide for improving the timely diagnosis of PsA, as well as promoting global awareness of PsA. We need to develop better screening tools as a matter of urgency, as these will be cost-effective and lead to better health outcomes for thousands of people."

INFORMATION: This effort was supported in part by the Celgene Corporation.

Further Information

Dr Philip Helliwell is available for interview. Please contact Ben Jones in the University of Leeds press office on +44 (0)113 343 8059 or email B.P.Jones@leeds.ac.uk

A factsheet with details of the Forum's findings is available.

A copy of the paper published in Arthritis Care and Research is also available.

More about PsA: http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/psoriatic-arthritis/what-is-psoriatic-arthritis.aspx

Stats about PsA: http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/news/general-news/2013/august/psoriatic-arthritis-patients-dissatisfied-with-treatment.aspx


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Lives and deaths of sibling stars

Lives and deaths of sibling stars
2014-07-23
This beautiful star cluster, NGC 3293, is found 8000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina (The Keel). This cluster was first spotted by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751, during his stay in what is now South Africa, using a tiny telescope with an aperture of just 12 millimetres. It is one of the brightest clusters in the southern sky and can be easily seen with the naked eye on a dark clear night. Star clusters like NGC 3293 contain stars that all formed at the same time, at the same distance from Earth and out of the same cloud ...

When it comes to depressed men in the military, does size matter?

2014-07-23
Los Angeles, CA (July 23, 2014) Both short and tall men in the military are more at risk for depression than their uniformed colleagues of average height, a new study finds. This study was published today in the open access journal SAGE Open. Despite the researchers' original hypothesis that shorter men in the military would be more psychologically vulnerable than their taller counterparts, researchers Valery Krupnik and Mariya Cherkasova found that men both shorter and taller than average by one standard deviation may be predisposed to higher rates of depressive disorders. ...

Controlling childbirth pain tied to lower depression risk

2014-07-23
CHICAGO --- Controlling pain during childbirth and post delivery may reduce the risk of postpartum depression, writes Katherine Wisner, M.D., a Northwestern Medicine® perinatal psychiatrist, in a July 23 editorial in Anesthesia & Analgesia. Wisner's editorial is based on a new Chinese study that found women who had pain control with epidural anesthesia during a vaginal delivery had a much lower risk for postpartum depression than women who didn't have the epidural. "Maximizing pain control in labor and delivery with your obstetrician and anesthesia team might help ...

Life expectancy gains threatened as more older Americans suffer from multiple conditions

2014-07-23
With nearly four in five older Americans living with multiple chronic medical conditions, a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that the more ailments you have after retirement age, the shorter your life expectancy. The analysis, one of the first to examine the burden of multiple chronic conditions on life expectancy among the elderly, may help explain why increases in life expectancy among older Americans are slowing. A report on the findings, based on an analysis of 1.4 million Medicare enrollees, appears in the August issue ...

Knowledgeable consumers more likely to buy when given fewer options

2014-07-23
The degree to which consumers perceive themselves to be knowledgeable about a product influences the likelihood that they will buy a particular product, researchers find in a series of studies published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "Together, our findings suggest that subjective knowledge may play an important role in determining ideal size for choice sets," explains researcher Liat Hadar of the Arison School of Business at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel. "That is, more options should be provided in ...

Benefits of combo lipid emulsion no greater than soy-based emulsion for pediatric patients

2014-07-23
Lipid emulsions are crucial for providing essential fatty acids and energy to infants and children who need intravenous feeding. There has been concern that soybean-based emulsions could compromise immune functions and promote liver damage due to its composition. Combination lipid emulsions based on triglyceride oil, fish oil, or olive oil have been developed to address this concern. However, researchers at Rutgers and Tufts universities found that concern may be unwarranted, according to a review published today in the OnlineFirst version of the Journal of Parenteral ...

Largest genetic survey to date shows major success of giant panda breeding programs

2014-07-23
Heroic worldwide conservation efforts have made great strides in saving China's endangered national treasure, the giant panda. Now, in China, there are over 65 giant panda reserves that have been established and three large breeding centers. But despite these efforts, just 1596 pandas remain in the wild. Breeding programs in conservation centers and zoos hope to save the panda by improving genetic diversity, avoid inbreeding and ultimately, introduce pandas back to the wild. Just how are these high-profile programs doing so far? In a new study appearing in the advanced ...

The human parasite Leishmania is a probiotic for the fly that carries it

The human parasite Leishmania is a probiotic for the fly that carries it
2014-07-23
The Leishmania parasite, which causes the human disease leishmaniasis, acts as a probiotic in the insect that transmits it to humans, protecting them from bacterial disease. Findings published in the open access journal Parasites and Vectors suggest that using bacterial controls to stop the spread of leishmaniasis could sometimes have the opposite effect to that intended, by benefiting flies carrying the parasite. Around 12 million people are currently infected with leishmaniasis worldwide, mostly in South America, Africa and Asia. It is estimated to kill 20-50,000 people ...

Stress can make hard-working mongooses less likely to help in the future

Stress can make hard-working mongooses less likely to help in the future
2014-07-23
Researchers studying banded mongooses in Uganda have discovered that those who work hard to care for pups may be less likely to invest in future offspring in the same way due to elevated stress hormones. Dr Jennifer Sanderson, from the University of Exeter, has been observing wild banded mongooses to understand why working hard makes them less likely to work hard in the future. She discovered that when a banded mongoose invests heavily to care for mongoose pups, it experiences an increase in circulating stress hormones (or 'glucocorticoids'), and these high stress ...

New model helps explain how provisions promote or reduce wildlife disease

2014-07-23
Athens, Ga. – Scientists have long known that providing supplemental food for wildlife, or resource provisioning, can sometimes cause more harm than good. University of Georgia ecologists have developed a new mathematical model to tease apart the processes that help explain why. Their research, which has implications for public health and wildlife conservation, appears in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Wildlife of many kinds are increasingly finding their meals in human environments, gathering at places like backyard bird feeders, landfills or farms that offer ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Psoriatic arthritis patients need better screening, warns panel of experts