Rheumatoid arthritis is an
autoimmune and a chronic disease that causes pain, stiffness, swelling and
limited motion and function of many joints. While rheumatoid arthritis can
affect any joint, the small joints in the hands and feet tend to be involved
most often. Inflammation sometimes can affect organs as well, for instance, the
eyes or lungs.
It is characterized by synovial
proliferation and a symmetric erosive arthritis of peripheral joints. For
the Romanian geographic particularity, it is appreciated that rheumatoid
arthritis affects around 1% from general population, so the total
number of suffering people are estimated to be up to 180,000. One of the
gold standard in treating rheumatoid arthritis are the biologicals one, they
are new class of drugs that have been used since 1998. Currently available
biologic agents act as inhibitors of the cytokines IL-1 or TNF.
The tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)
blockers and the recombinant interleukin 1 (IL-1) receptor antagonist are
effective in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis, they have been
associated with reactivation of tuberculosis and possibly development of other
opportunistic infections (histoplasmosis, listeriosis. and pneumocystis).
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