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Rtsa-byugs, a massage oil from Bhutan, is a traditional herbal formula known for its anti-inflammatory properties and used in osteoarthritis treatment. This study investigates the efficacy of rtsa-byugs vs diclofenacgel in relieving knee pain in osteoarthritis patients.

A single-blind, randomized controlled trial was conducted amongst osteoarthritis knee patients at an orthopedic outpatient department of Thammasat University Hospital. Participants were randomly allocated to the rtsa-byugs (N = 31) or the Diclofenac gel (N = 31) group. Primary outcomes were assessed by the knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome scores (KOOS), visual analog scale (VAS) and goniometer at day 0, 1, 3, 7.

62 participants completed the study. The result of the KOOS scores demonstrated a significant improvement of symptoms at the end of the study in both treatment groups. Improvement of symptoms, pain, daily life living, sport and recreational score and quality of life assessment showed a significant difference from baseline (p < 0.001) within both groups. The quality of life score for the rtsa-byugs group increased significantly on day 3 and 7. The VAS score in both groups decreased with a significant difference from baseline to day 7. The mean value of extension of angle measurement was decreased in day 7, and the mean of flexion score increased in both groups when compared with the baseline.

The duration of the study was very limited and included a small sample consisting of men and women.

Rtsa-byugs is safe and effective in relieving pain from osteoarthritis of the knee and can be used as an alternative treatment for knee osteoarthritis.

Executives at biotechnology firm Genzyme are debating funding a clinical trial for a new version of a medical device called Synvisc. The trial is expensive and the odds of success are not high, but the upside is substantial. The case presents a common business question: invest or not? The case forces students to think about customer insights, wrestle with a number of complex issues, and evaluate the financials of the decision.

The case is ideal for teaching financial analysis and decision making. It can also be used to teach marketing, new product strategy, and healthcare industry management.

Arthritis is the most prevalent chronic condition in persons ages 65 and older and is projected to increase substantially as the population ages. The purpose of this research is to assess if age, duration of arthritis, and severity of arthritis exert independent effects on various aspects of the disability process: functional limitations, activities of daily living (ADL) limitations, and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) limitations. Type of arthritis, socio-demographic factors, behavioral factors, and additional health statuses are also examined. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement study, results show age and severity of arthritis are related to the number of functional limitations one has and to the odds of having ADL and IADL limitations. Duration of arthritis is positively related to functional limitations and to the odds of reporting ADL limitations. Duration of arthritis is not significantly related to IADL limitations, which are strongly linked to performing social roles and have less to do with physical functioning compared to ADL tasks and functional tasks. There is no difference between those with established arthritis compared to those who have had it for a shorter time period, suggesting those with arthritis adapt to social tasks better than physical tasks. The resources used to cope with IADL limitations may be more effective over time compared to those used to cope with functional limitations and ADL disability. Understanding the context of functional limitations and disability among those with arthritis may lead to improved support and care for those living with arthritis.

Falling was distinguished as leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among elderly; there is a lack of information regarding the falling risk factors in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the falling risk and correlated factors in community-dwelling elderly.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 280 elderly using a multi-sectional questionnaire in Karaj, Iran. The simple stratified random sampling was used. Adult who were over the age of 60, living independently, able to ambulate independently and safely, no cognition problem and speaking in Persian entered in the study. Exclusion criteria were residing in assisted living facility or unwilling to participate. Several statistical tests including logistic regression analysis were used to analyse the data.

The mean age of participants was 69.55±8.82 and 51 per cent of them were female. The results showed that there are significant differences between low-, medium- and high-risk groups regarding age, marital status, diabetes, blood pressure and osteoarthritis (p<0.05). Due to finding, the main predictors to higher chance of falling were age (OR=1.61; 95% CI 1.025–1.097), marital status (OR=1.485; 95% CI 1.170–1.279), vision acuity (OR=1.603; 95% CI 1.297–2.223), activities of daily living (OR=2.10; 95% CI 1.047–3.859), heart disease (OR=1.448; 95% CI 1.268–1.728), osteoarthritis (OR=1.238; 95% CI 1.711–2.127), falling history (OR=1.026; 95% CI 1.015–1.089) and medication (OR=5.975; 95% CI 1.525–23.412).

Better understanding of falling risk factors can lead to the implementation of effective preventive intervention, thus reducing public health expenditure, and improving the quality of life.

This study was conducted for the first time to assess the risk of falling in older people in Iran.

The purpose of this study was to explore patient’s perception of their disorder.

This study used a phenomenographical approach within a qualitative research paradigm. A total of 21 patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) were recruited for the study, and data were collected through open-ended face-to-face interviews. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed. The transcribed verbatim was analyzed for themes.

The themes developed reflected the patients’ perceptions about the disease process. Thematic analysis revealed three themes: Knee OA is a degenerative disease, Knee OA is an age-related disease and Knee OA is caused by certain activities of daily living. The patient’s information varied and was limited to what had been provided by the health-care practitioner. The knowledge was more biomedical in orientation and was limited and not supported by the evidence.

There is a need to provide evidence-based information that the patient must understand. Health-care providers must use a biopsychosocial framework to discuss the disease knowledge with patients.

This study helps us in identifying disease perceptions that can be used to design education programs for knee OA patients. It also highlights the need for delivering educational programs to knee OA patients.

This study lays a foundation for further research. To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first study to explore disease perceptions using a qualitative approach conducted among patients from a lower middle-income country.

This is the third in a series of papers aimed at providing models effective in predicting the degree of pain and discomfort in canines. The first two papers provided benchmarking and examination of dogs suffering from osteoarthritis (OA). In this chapter, we extend the study to include dogs suffering from OA, sarcoma, and oral mucositis (a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatments). The R programming language and SAS JMP are used to clean data, generate ANOVA, LSR regression, decision tree, and nominal logistic regression models to predict changes in activity levels associated with the progression of arthritis. The predictive models provide a diagnostic basis for determining the degree of disease in a dog (based on demographics and activity levels) and provide forecasts that assist in establishing appropriate medication dosages for suffering dogs.