http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A commonly used class of biologic response modifying drugs can cause acute liver injury with elevated liver enzymes, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Patients with inflammatory diseases such as Chron's disease or ulcerative colitis often are prescribed tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists, which modify the body's response to infection. Patients with inflammatory arthropathies and selected dermatological diseases are also candidates to receive such compounds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-frequently-biologic-agents-acute-liver.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:52:34 EST news286480349 The cost of one year's treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with new generation drugs is more than the per capita gross domestic product of 26 European countries, reveals research published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-wide-disparities-access-latest-rheumatoid.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:30:01 EST news281808813 The treatment of moderately active rheumatoid arthritis with the tumour necrosis factor inhibitor Etanercept achieves excellent success in more than 80 per cent of patients. With this method, the success can be maintained at half of the drug dose just as effectively as with the full dose. These are the latest findings of a study led by Josef Smolen, Head of the Department of Rheumatology at the MedUni Vienna, which has just been published in the top journal Lancet. Says Smolen: "This finding underpins on the one hand the tremendous successes that can be achieved with the drugs that are available today, and on the other paves the way for the healthcare system to achieve excellent potential savings with reduced drug burdens for patients who have achieved good treatment successes." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-rheumatism-drug-effective-dose.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:48:15 EST news277721287 (HealthDay)—Treatment of rabbits with a partial spinal cord injury (SCI) with the intramuscularly-administered tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) inhibitor etanercept is associated with improved clinical and electrophysiological recovery processes, according to research published in the December issue of the European Spine Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-etanercept-beneficial-partial-spinal-cord.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:30:01 EST news277121319 A single injection, then a five-minute wait. That's all it took for hundreds of stroke and traumatic brain injury patients from South Florida and nationwide to reverse years of debilitation. Now they're walking more steadily, reading more easily, concentrating better, speaking more clearly and regaining use of once-rigid limbs - long after giving up hope that their bodies would ever respond. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-florida-doctor-survivors-shot-mobility.html Neuroscience Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:20:02 EST news275309602 (HealthDay)—For patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), long-term clinical outcomes are good with etanercept and adalimumab; but for adalimumab, treatment response is strongly dependent on the presence or absence of anti-adalimumab antibodies, according to research published in the December issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-immunogenicity-strongly-impacts-response-adalimumab.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:11:21 EST news274633874 A new ground-breaking study about to be published in the Adis journal CNS Drugs provides clinical evidence that, for the first time, chronic neurological dysfunction from stroke or traumatic brain injury can rapidly improve following a single dose of a drug that targets brain inflammation, even years after the stroke or traumatic event. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-survivors-traumatic-brain-injury.html Medical research Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:17:21 EST news270933432 New research confirms no significant difference in the rates of death among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who were exposed to one of several TNF inhibitors used to treat RA, adalimumab (Humira), etanercept (Enbrel), and infliximab (Remicade). This population-based study of RA patients in Sweden—the first to compare mortality rates among patients treated with individual TNF inhibitors—is now available in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-difference-death-patients-exposed-common.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:01 EST news263569158 Patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor medications (anti-TNFs) have a 75% greater risk of developing herpes zoster, or shingles, than patients treated with traditional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), according to a meta-analysis presented today at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-treatment-anti-tnfs-shingles-percent.html Arthritis & Rheumatism Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:39:52 EST news258273584 (HealthDay) -- The effectiveness of therapies for psoriasis is variable, and may be lower in real-world settings than in trial settings, according to a study published in the April issue of the Archives of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-effectiveness-psoriasis-treatments.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:30:01 EST news254150335 Despite the great promise that injecting a new type of anti-inflammatory pain medicine into the spine could relieve the severe leg and lower back pain of sciatica, a Johns Hopkins-led study has found that the current standard of care with steroid injections still does better. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-etanercept-genetically-compound-pain.html Medical research Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:00:04 EST news253810062 (HealthDay) -- Ultraviolet B (UVB) is preferred by dermatologists for first-line treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis in both healthy male and female patients, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-uvb-treatment-moderate-severe-psoriasis.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:40:01 EST news249309321 (Medical Xpress) -- A study shows that the medication etanercept reduces the frequency and severity of symptoms of TNF receptor-associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS), a rare inherited condition characterized by recurrent fevers, abdominal pain and skin rashes. The study, published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, also points out the need for the development of additional therapies to more thoroughly ease symptoms and prevent long-term complications of the disease. The study was released by researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-benefits-limits-therapy-rare-inflammatory.html Inflammatory disorders Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:59:39 EST news238831170 A multicenter pilot study of etanercept for treatment of dermatomyositis found no major safety concerns and many patients treated with the drug were successfully weaned from steroid therapy. These results are encouraging, but larger studies are needed to further investigate the safety and efficacy of etanercept. Results of this clinical trial are available in Annals of Neurology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Neurological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-etanercept-dermatomyositis.html Neuroscience Fri, 17 Jun 2011 03:53:54 EST news227501620