Juvenile Arthritis
The future: artificial bones made from umbilical cord stem cells
A new biomaterial that enables bone tissue to be generated from umbilical cord stem cells has been patented by a team in Spain. The material comprises an activated carbon cloth support for cells that differentiate giving rise to a product that can promote bone growth.
Lab results are promising but the method hasn’t yet been tried in animals. It is hoped that in the future the biomaterial could help repair bone and replace lost cartilage.
Music helps children cope with pain
Evidence is accumulating that music decreases children’s perceived sense of pain following findings from the University of Alberta, Canada.
A total of 42 children aged 3 years to 11 years who were brought to an emergency department of a hospital and needed an IV were split into two groups. Some listened to music and some did not. Continue reading
Waiting times for musculoskeletal care slashed in pilot study
A pilot study in Newcastle has cut waiting times for people with muscular and joint problems and could save the NHS millions of pounds if widely adopted.
The scheme saw all physiotherapy referrals routed via a referral management centre to triage patients to the most appropriate care. Continue reading
MMR booster ‘unlikely to worsen disease activity’ in children with arthritis
Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) can receive booster doses of the MMR vaccine without any worsening of their disease activity, suggests research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A team from The Netherlands divided 137 children with JIA (aged 4–9 years) into two groups. Half received the MMR booster vaccine and the other half received no injection.
There was little change in the juvenile arthritis disease activity score of either group, and little difference in the number of disease flares.
Experts had worried that because the MMR immunisation contains live vaccines, it could put children with arthritis at risk of infection because their immune systems could be less able to fight off pathogens. The current study goes some way to alleviate those fears.
“The safety of MMR vaccination has been questioned because disease flares have been described after MMR vaccination,” comment the authors. “Our trial does not show an effect of vaccination on disease activity.”
Larger studies are needed to confirm the effects of MMR vaccination in children using biologic therapies to treat their arthritis.
Physio-patient relationship is key to back pain relief
The way that a physiotherapist interacts with their patient could be nearly as important as the treatment itself for people with back pain, suggests a new study from Canada.
Scientists studied 117 people who had chronic lower back pain, splitting the volunteers into four groups: Continue reading
