INFO - New standards of treatment for early RA

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New Standards of Treatment for Early Rheumatoid Arthritis

Musings

A. Paget, MD, FACP, FACR

Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology,

Hospital for Special Surgery

The ph P. Routh Professor of Medicine, Weill Medical College of

Cornell University

Posted 15 Oct 2003

In last month's Musings, I reflected on the need for rheumatologists

to learn how to " turn and keep down the heat " related to the

inflammatory processes that burden our patients in order to protect

them not only from immediate joint and organ damage but also from

long-term collateral damage: functional limitation, lymphoma risk,

premature osteoporosis, early mortality. I reviewed the advances in

our knowledge of the pathophysiology of rheumatic diseases and looked

forward with hope to our new biologic therapies.

Now, we come to the question of when to use our broad array of new

drugs. This month, we focus on the first " window of opportunity " - the

critical nature of early disease.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.hss.edu/professional-conditions_13577.asp

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Not an MD