One of the bigger national diseases that belongs to the field of rheumatology is Rheumatoid arthritis and it is three to four times more usual among women. The purpose of this study was to describe female patients' experience of living with Rheumatoid arthritis. The method, was a review of the literature with eight articles accomplished the criteria for scientific quality done in the accordance to Polit, Beck & Hungler (2001) and are the bases to the conclusions of this study. The result shows five main themes and ten sub themes that illuminate the female patient's experience of living with Rheumatoid arthritis. The main themes are: a) the pain, b) the development, c) the relation, d) the well-being and e) the future.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a common disease worldwide. The disease is described as a chronic inflammation that afflicts mainly the joints, the tendrons and the synovial joint. The inflammation breaks down cartilage, ligaments and bone. When the patient gets the diagnosis he/she frequently reacts with chock, denial or/and dissociation. Active support from the nurse can have an important impact on the patient in accepting and processing that he/she suffers from disease.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect between the drugs rituximab and infliximab in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is an autoimmune disease that affects the peripheral joints and is associated with exacerbations. Various immune reactions in the body cause inflammation of the joints which further results in cartilage and bone damage. The diagnosis is made by the classification system "The 2010 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) / European league against rheumatism (EULAR) classification criteria for Rheumatoid arthritis", which is an update of the older system called "The 1987 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for RA". Approximately 0.5-1% of the population is developing the disease, but it varies slightly between different parts of the world.

To reach health and wellbeing, despite a disease as Rheumatoid arthritis, the patient needs help to manage and cope with his situation. The caregiver?s task is to give this support. The aim of this study was to illuminate how patients with Rheumatoid arthritis experienced the relationship to the caregivers in the ?rheumatic-team?, and the participation in this team.

Syftet med denna studie var att genom en litteraturstudie beskriva arbetsterapeutiska interventioner för personer med begränsad handfunktion på grund av artros eller reumatoid artrit (RA). Datainsamlingen har skett genom sökning i databaser utifrån i förväg av författarna ställda inklusions och exklusionskriterier. Tolv stycken artiklar inkluderades i studien och analyserades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. I analysen framkom fem olika kategorier av arbetsterapeutiska interventioner. Kategorierna är ortoser, värme/kyla, information/utbildning, styrke- och rörelseövningar och ADL-träning.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: A vegetarian diet, a possible treatment complement for relief of symptoms ofRheumatoid arthritis? A systematic review.Author: Alexandra Ahlsén and Caroline ForsbergSupervisor: Mette AxelsenExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 22, 2012Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic remitting polyarthritis that is relapsing.Symptoms are inflammation of the joints with pain, stiffness and degradation of joint tissue.In some cases, also other parts of the body are involved. The treatment consists ofmedications to reduce pain, inflammation and degradation of joint tissue. Today, the offerednutritional treatment is primarily focused on meeting energy requirements and nutrient needs.The diet has also been discussed as symptomatic treatment, and one of the factors believed toinfluence the symptoms is meat.Objective: To assess the evidence as to whether a vegetarian diet affects the symptoms ofRheumatoid arthritis, and if so, to suggest how it can be implemented in practical dieteticswork.Search strategy The databases used in the literature search was PubMed, Scopus, and AMED.The search words used were: "rheumatiod arthritis", "vegetarian", "vegan", "diet", "meat" and"animal protein".Selection criteria: Studies investigating a vegetarian diet on the symptoms of RA wereincluded. Only RCT, clinical trial, controlled clinical trial, human studies and original articlesin English or Swedish were included.

Traumatic arthritis is a common cause of lameness in horses. One of different treatment alternatives of arthritis, is intra-articular injection with hyaluronan. As knowledge about pathophysiology of arthritis and function of hyaluronan is increasing, understanding grows about the mechanism of hyaluronan action in joints. Hyaluronan has, in addition to effects on viscosity, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Extensive research and scientific studies have been made on exogenous hyaluronan.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, which affects mostly women. RA is also a chronic disease and the treatment is focused on moderating the immunological process. RA-patients experience daily pain which affect their prosperity. The aim of this literature study is to illuminate some factors that influence the well-being of patients with RA. The factors that have been studied are pain, nutrition and need of knowledge about nutrition.

Sammanfattning:Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva begränsningar i aktivitetsförmågan hos personer med reumatoid artrit ( RA). En samsökning gjordes i databaserna Amed, Cinahl och Medline. Sökorden som användes var Rheumatoid arthritis, daily living, impairment och personal impact. Resultatet visade att aktiviteten duscha/bada inom aktivitetsområdet personlig vård var den aktivitet som begränsades mest till följd av RA. Inom aktivitetsområdet boende var det aktiviteten laga mat som begränsades mest till följd av RA.

Personer med RA drabbas av smärta, trötthet, depression och funktionsnedsättning. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att beskriva vad personer med reumatoid artrit upplever påverkar deras livskvalitet. Studien baserar sig på sju kvalitativa artiklar. Analysarbetet gjordes enligt kvalitativ innehållsanalys med manifest ansats. Studien resulterade i fyra kategorier: Förändrad fysisk kapacitets påverkan, socialt stöds påverkan, känslomässiga upplevelsers påverkan, att kunna bemästra sin vardag.

This essay aims to investigate how women who fall ill in Rheumatoid arthritis, during or just after their pregnancy, experience and cope with this. The main questions were 1. What experiences did the women have from receiving their diagnosis? 2. How has the motherhood and the sickness affected one another? 3.

In the dog breed Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (NSDTR) several dogs suffer from joint pain and possibly pain from the muscles. This diffuse disease is called Immune-mediated Non- Erosive Arthritis in Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. The disease is most likely of autoimmune nature where the etiology still is unknown. The musculoskeletal symptoms of stiffness and shifting lameness are intermittently seen. Some dogs also have dermatological changes and some dogs suffer from pain when opening their mouth. The study included 20 diseased and 20 healthy NSDTR. The purpose was to describe immune-mediated arthritis in NSDTR based on symptoms, results of analysis and effect of treatment. Among the diseased dogs 65% had serum positive for antinuclear antibodies by indirect immunofluorescense (IIF) ANA-test.

Bakgrund: Reumatoid atrit (RA) är en av de mest kända reumatiska sjukdomarna och kan beskrivas som en kronisk, systemisk, inflammatorisk sjukdom. Sjukdomen drabbar ca 1 % av befolkningen. Fysiologiska och anatomiska störningar som kan drabba personer med RA är rörelse- och belastningssmärta, nedsatt rörlighet, leddeformitet, nedsatt muskelfunktion och nedsatt kondition. Syfte: Att undersöka vilka metoder för, och vilka effekter av, fysisk träning som fanns dokumenterade i vetenskaplig litteratur för personer med reumatoid artrit. Metod: En datasökning gjordes på databaserna PubMed, SweMed + och Cochrane.

In this essay dog as a compatible model were put against human. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes were compared between dogs, human, cat and mouse. To evaluate dog as a model and study similarities and differences was the aim with this review. Dog as a model contributes to understand mechanisms behind autoimmune diseases and showed clearly histological similarities between human and dogs concerning the skin disease mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP)/cicatricial pemphgioid (CP). Further genetic evidence motivated the choice of using dog as a comprehensive model when the MHC-complex correlated with hypothyroiditis in Doberman dog as it does in human. Physiological similarities with low levels of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) together with high level of thyroid releasing hormone (TSH) were found in the same way as in human.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where joints are attacked by the own immune system, leading to chronic inflammation and destruction of bone and cartilage. Inflammation is a complex process, controlled by many different substances. One of them is adenosine, which has anti-inflammatory properties. In this project, three polymorphisms in different genes, involved in synthesis and signaling of adenosine, were genotyped for 188 patients with RA and 362 controls without RA. The results shows that for the polymorphism in A2a, a gene coding for an adenosine receptor, there was no significant difference in genotype distribution between the groups.