RA remission - HealthTalk

[Guest guest]

HealthTalk.com

Transcript excerpt

August 28, 2003

Treating RA and Other Chronic Conditions: Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Diabetes

Audience question:

Dr. Lindsey, one of your slides mentioned remission, and I wondered if

you can define remission and let us know what the chances are of active

RA going into remission after a number of years?

Dr. Lindsey:

The chance of remission in rheumatoid arthritis is about 10 to 15

percent. Remission is defined by the AmericanCollege of Rheumatology

that there is no active joint tenderness; that the person has minimal

morning stiffness. So, usually it is going to be less than five minutes

that the person has a normal inflammatory rate. They use those kinds of

parameters. The person would come in and say, " I have no pain, no

stiffness, I am doing everything I want to, " and their blood tests are

normal. That would be remission. Sometimes remission is induced by the

medicine, and sometimes it is spontaneous. In some people, rheumatoid

arthritis is a funny disease, it may be milder and it might run a course

of a year or two - particularly in younger people, young kids - and will

go into a spontaneous remission and not come back. Most people are not

that lucky, but in drug-induced remission, when you stop the drug, then

the disease creeps back. Once the person gets in all those criteria,

we'll start cutting the drug back and see if you still need it or not.

Rick:

Dr. Lindsey, what about the issue of remission during pregnancy?

Dr. Lindsey:

Well, the placenta produces a protein, a pregnancy-associated globulin

that acts like an immune suppressant, so you don't reject the baby. In

about 70 percent of the people with rheumatoid arthritis, it puts it

into remission. Again, they don't have any symptoms at all, but once the

baby is delivered, the placenta is delivered, but then comes back with a

vengeance. So, sometimes pregnancy induced remissions are just a

transient part.

http://www.healthtalk.com/rheumatoidarthritis/programs/082803/page06.cfm

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org