Polytomous logistic regression identified correlates of treatment approaches including sociodemographics and clinical/functional correlates.
Results: CAM use was prevalent (47%), with 24% reporting use of both CAM and conventional medication approaches. Multi-joint OA was correlated with all treatments (adjusted odds ratios (aOR) conventional medications only: 1.62; CAM only: 1.37 and both: 2.16). X-ray evidence of severe narrowing (OARSI grade 3) was associated with use of glucosamine/chondroitin (aOR: 2.20) and use of both (aOR: 1.98). The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC)-Pain Score was correlated with conventional medication use, either alone (aOR: 1.28) or in combination with CAM
(aOR: 1.41 per one AG-881 standard deviation change). Knee Outcomes in Osteoarthritis Survey (KOOS)-Quality of Life (QOL) and Short Form (SF)-12 Physical Scale scores were inversely related to all treatments.
Conclusion: CAM is commonly used to treat joint and arthritis pain among persons with knee OA. The extent to which these treatments are effective in managing symptoms and slowing disease progression remains to be proven. (C) 2011 Osteoarthritis Research Society International.
Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Background-
The Relaxin for the Treatment of Acute Heart Failure (RELAX-AHF) trial enrolled 1161 patients admitted to the hospital for acute heart failure (AHF) to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of serelaxin, a recombinant form of human relaxin-2. We characterized how representative RELAX-AHF clinical trial enrollees were to those patients with AHF found in STA-9090 international registries.
Methods and Results-
We examined 196 770 AHF admissions from the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry-United States and Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry-International registries. Patients were considered RELAX-AHF-type if they met the following criteria: discharge diagnosis of heart failure, systolic blood pressure > 125 mm Hg, dyspnea at rest or with mild exertion, intravenous diuretic use, glomerular filtration rate of 30 to 75 mL/min per 1.73 m(2), hemoglobin > 8 g/dL, and no use of intravenous inotropes or vasopressors.
Baseline find more characteristics and treatments of RELAX-AHF-type and non-RELAX-AHF-type patients were compared. A Cox model was used to evaluate inpatient mortality. Among both Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry-United States and Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry-International registries, 20.7% (n=38 485) and 16.2% (n=1749) of patients met basic criteria for RELAX-AHF entry, respectively. These patients were more likely to be older, be women, have a previous history of hypertension, have preserved ejection fraction, and have better renal function. In-hospital mortality was lower in RELAX-AHF-type than in non-RELAX-AHF-type patients, even after multivariable adjustment (hazard ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.53-0.