No abstract

Hip osteoarthritis (OA) is usually managed with systemic treatments such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and/or symptomatic slow-acting drugs. Unfortunately, many patients either cannot tolerate NSAIDs or suffer serious, even fatal, NSAID-induced side effects, predominantly gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding. Viscosupplementation, which aims to restore physiological and rheological features of the synovial fluid, is a well-accepted therapeutic option in knee OA patients, but limited data exist in the literature about its potential benefit for the treatment of hip OA. The purpose of this study is to observe the effects of hylan G-F 20 administered through ultrasound (US)-guided intra-articular (IA) injections in patients with symptomatic hip OA. We treated 30 patients with symptomatic hip OA. Under US guidance, 7 patients received one injection, 21 patients had two injections, and 2 patients received three injections, each with 2 ml of hylan G-F 20. Lequesne index, VAS scale of hip pain, and NSAID consumption were evaluated at baseline as well as 2 and 6 months after the beginning of the treatment. No systemic adverse events were observed. Lequesne index, VAS pain score, and NSAID consumption showed a reduction that was statistically significant to the baseline. The present observation suggests the potentiality for the safety and efficacy of hylan G-F 20 injected under US guidance in patients with symptomatic hip OA. Further controlled studies are needed.

We measured pretreatment serum levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) in 25 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome receiving recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) at dosages up to 300 U/kg thrice weekly for 12 weeks. Both TNF-alpha and IL-1 beta levels were measured using commercially available enzyme-linked immunoassays. A complete response (CR) was defined as a rise in untransfused haemoglobin concentrations of at least 2 g/dl or a 100% decrease in RBC transfusion requirements over the treatment period; a partial response (PR) was an increase in untransfused haemoglobin values of 1-2 g/dl or a decrease in RBC transfusion requirements equal to or greater than 50%; no response (NR) was defined as a response less than a PR. After 12 weeks of rhEPO treatment, four patients showed a CR, five patients a PR, and 16 patients NR. Serum levels of both TNF-alpha (80.5 %/- 64.8 vs 8.1 +/- 4.2 ng/l, P < 0.001) and IL-1 beta (60.4 +/- 49.9 vs 8.9 +/- 4.7 ng/l, P < 0.001) were higher in MDS patients than in a group of 28 normal controls. Responders (CR + PR) showed significantly lower serum levels of TNF-alpha than non-responders (21.6 +/- 26.2 vs 106.3 +/- 60.8 ng/l, P < 0.001), whereas IL-1 beta concentrations between those who benefited from therapy and unresponsive cases were not significantly different (39.8 +/- 48.9 vs 73.4 +/- 48.2 ng/l, P = 0.120). It is noteworthy that TNF-alpha levels were within the normal range in all responsive patients but one, whereas all non-responders presented elevated cytokine concentrations. No relationship was found between TNF-alpha or IL-1 beta values and haemoglobin levels, transfusion requirement, serum EPO or ferritin concentrations. We conclude that pre-treatment TNF-alpha levels might help to select those MDS patients who are most likely to benefit from rhEPO treatment.

BackgroundTo evaluate the clinical outcomes of a group of patients affected by knee osteoarthritis (OA) treated with MD-Knee (Guna S.p.a., Milan, Italy) versus a group of patients treated with sodium hyaluronate.MethodThis non-inferiority prospective randomized controlled trial involved 60 patients affected by knee OA, grade 2–3 of Kellgren-Lawrence scale. The MD-Knee Group, Group A (n = 29) was administered five intra-articular injections at 1 week interval; the sodium hyaluronate Group, Group B (n = 31), was administered five doses of intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate at 1 week interval. All patients were prospectively evaluated before and at 3 and 6 months after the treatment by the Lequesne Knee Index (LKI) as primary endpoint and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Pain Killer consumption and SF-36 questionnaires as secondary endpoints.ResultsAt the 3- and 6 month follow-up, LKI and VAS improved significantly in both groups compared to baseline and no statistically significant differences were observed between Group A and Group B. There was no statistically significant difference in the SF36 questionnaire score and pain killer consumption between two groups at any time point.ConclusionsThis study shows that both preparations exert similar clinical effects as assessed through multiple outcome measures. MD-Knee is effective on knee OA symptoms over 6 months after a 5-weekly injection course, and it is equally effective as the reference sodium hyaluronate.Trial registrationTrial registration number: ISRCTN93862496. Registration date: January 18th, 2016