الفهرس يوجد فقط 14 صفحة متاحة للعرض العام
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المستخلص
Chronic arthritis and chronic joint pain are the leading cause of limitation in daily activities and disability among adults. Management of chronic rheumatic conditions usually consists of prescribed medications, physical therapy, and self-management strategies recommended by physicians such as exercise, weight control, use of heat or cold and intermittent rest.
chronically ill patients are living longer with chronic diseases that are more complex to treat. Many of them are returning to complementary medicine, as a part of their frustration with today’s health-care system and they thought that Alternative therapies may offer tools and remedies that, along with mainstream medicine, can influence their overall health.
While the use of complementary and alternative medicine continues to increase among patients with persistent musculoskeletal pain, the clinical trials examining their efficacy, safety and mechanism of work are deficient . There for additional researches on efficacy and safety of CAM therapies used by arthritis patients are needed before definitive recommendations of their application.
Thus our study aiming to :
• Compare the efficacy of conventional medicine with some complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), knee (OA) and chronic back pain.
• Examine the short and long run efficacy of CAM and conventional medicine for managing clinical manifestation in patients with RA, knee OA and chronic back pain.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The study included one hundred patients. They were chosen from the Outpatient and Inpatient clinic of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation of Zagazig University Hospitals.
They were classified into the following groups:
Group (I):
It included thirty patients suffering from early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They were diagnosed according to the criteria for classification rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by the American Collage of Rheumatology (ACR, 1987).
Patients were subjected to the following :
• Full history taking.
• Complete clinical examination.
• Laboratory investigations: erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), complete blood cell count (CBC), liver & kidney function tests, estimation of serum interleukin-2 (IL-2)
• Plain X-ray of both hands.
Group (І) was subdivided into two groups A & B .:
Group (A):
Comprised of fifteen patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).These patients were treated by conventional therapy in the form of methotrexate and Indomethacin .
Group (B):
Included fifteen patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and all of them treated with CAM in form of acupuncture. All patients in group (B) were subjected to full history taking and complete clinical examination according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diagnosis .
Group (II):
Included forty patients suffered from chronic low back pain (LBP).
At study entry, all patients were subjected to :
1. Complete history taking.
2. Full clinical examination.
3. Plain x-ray of lumbosacral spine (anteroposterior and lateral views).
4. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of lumbosacral spine.
Patients in these group were divided into three groups: C, DI & DII
Groups (C):
Comprised 15 patients . Patients in this group were treated by rehabilitation program of multidisciplinary therapy based on muscle relaxants, intensive exercises and short wave diathermy SWD.