ARTICLE - Can RA be prevented?

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Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Be Prevented?

Medscape.com

Deane, MD

Posted: 18 Mar 2011

Healthcare now is moving towards prevention, or at the very least very

early detection, as a means to manage many of the diseases that affect

the population. For example, vaccines are given against a wide variety

of pathogens in order to prevent morbidity and mortality from

infections. Also, individuals are screened for risk factors for

cardiovascular disease (CVD), and once identified, risk factors that

can be modified are addressed to help prevent or delay CVD events.

Importantly, the ability to prevent diseases such as infections and

CVD comes from substantial research that was performed in order to

understand the natural history of disease, and important etiologic

factors. Once the natural history of disease was sufficiently

understood, studies then demonstrated the benefit of screening for

risk factors as well as the benefit of interventions to improve

disease outcomes. For example, in CVD large-scale prospective studies

identified risk factors for disease such as hypertension, diabetes,

and smoking, and based on these risk factors, instruments such as the

Framingham score were developed to accurately predict an individual

patients risk for a CVD event within a defined time period. Once

identified, specific risk factors can be modified to reduce the risk

for CVD events.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738829

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