Arthritis: Treating Gum Disease to Fight Pain

People, who suffer from gum disease and also have a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis, reduced their arthritic pain, number of swollen joints and the degree of morning stiffness when they cured their dental problems.
This is not the first time that gum disease and rheumatoid arthritis have been linked. According to one of the researchers conducting the study, Ali Askari, "From way back, rheumatologists and other clinicians have been perplexed by the myth that gum disease may have a big role in causing systematic disease." He added that historically teeth were pulled or antibiotics given for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, which actually treated the periodontitis. The patients got better.

Nabil Bissada of the research team notes that gum disease tends to be prevalent in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Both inflammatory diseases share similarities in the progression of the disease over time. In both diseases, the soft and hard tissues are destroyed from inflammation caused by toxins from bacterial infection.

One toxin from the inflamed areas called tumour neurosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is a marker present in the blood when inflammation is present in the body. TNF-α can initiate new infections or aggravate sites where inflammation already exists.

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GE Healthcare announced the first four installations of its new cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) based Discovery NM 530c nuclear cardiology camera featuring Alcyone Technology.  This revolutionary imaging system has been installed at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City, United States, Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa, Canada, University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland and Gabriele Monasterio Foundation, CNR, in Pisa, Italy.

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Mechelen, Belgium,: Virco BVBA has signed a global research and development, non-exclusive licensing agreement with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc (NY, USA). Under this agreement Siemens is providing Virco a license which will enable Virco to develop and commercialize a new hepatitis C research service testing platform. This platform will initially be utilized by pharmaceutical companies for drug development support of the new hepatitis C virus (HCV) antivirals. The platform will have the potential to provide  HCV clinical diagnostic testing services in the future.

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 Boston Scientific Corporation announced that 14 abstracts and additional clinical data analyses involving the SpyGlass® Direct Visualization System will be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW), which runs from May 30 to June 4 in Chicago. "The impressive number of presentations on the SpyGlass System underscores the potential of this technology as a vital new tool in endoscopic procedures for diagnosing and treating pancreatic and biliary disease," said Michael P. Phalen, President, Boston Scientific Endoscopy. "Boston Scientific is dedicated to developing technologies and expanding indications that enhance the quality of life for patients, as demonstrated by our new pancreatic indication for the SpyGlass System, as well as the broad range of endoscopic innovations showcased at DDW."

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The most reliable method of diagnosing gout is to aspirate the joint in order to obtain fluid to verify the presence of monosodium urate crystals (uric acid). Up to now, computed tomography (CT) has played a limited role in the evaluation of gout, since conventional CT systems cannot reliably verify deposits of uric acid. However, a current study at the Vancouver General Hospital in Canada gives rise to speculation that dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) could radically change the diagnosis of this disease. DECT enables fast, noninvasive examinations and, based on initial evaluations, has the potential to surpass the invasive gold standard and clinical examination in terms of reliability. Investigations have confirmed the high sensitivity of the DECT method in detecting uric acid deposits. The Canadian scientists used the SOMATOM Definition computed tomography (CT scanner) from Siemens for their investigation. This system is the only CT scanner worldwide that features two X-ray tubes capable of simultaneously producing different energies.

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