OBJECTIVE: To evaluate 1-year symptomatic improvement in obese patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) on an intensive low-energy diet (LED) maintained by frequent consultations with a dietician compared to minimal attention. METHODS: The LED programme consisted of group therapy with dietary consultations and two periods of a low-calorie diet of 810 kcal/day during weeks 0-8 and weeks 32-36. The control group only received dietary instruction and attention for 2 h at baseline, and at weeks 8, 32, 36 and 52. The primary end point (total Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) index) was assessed as the mean group difference during and after 1 year. RESULTS: The study population consisted of 89 patients, 89% women, average age 63 years. After 1 year, mean weight loss in the LED group was -10.9 kg (11%) versus -3.6 kg (4%) in the control group (p

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study investigated the efficacy and safety of milnacipran in the treatment of fibromyalgia (FM) in a European population.

the biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are very effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), however there is a lack of head-to-head comparison studies.

It has not been studied yet whether factors such as the number of subjects recruited by specialized centers for multicenter trials may influence weight loss during a low-calorie diet (LCD). This study aimed at determining whether the number of recruited subjects per center might predict relative weight loss. This is a post hoc analysis of an existing database: 701 obese subjects (77% women, 23% men, mean BMI: 38.9 kg/m(2)) were enrolled at 22 sites (4-85 subjects/site) in five countries to follow a LCD providing 800-1,000 kcal/day during 8 weeks. The main outcome measure was the percentage weight loss after the 8-week LCD. Mean weight loss differed significantly between participating centers (5.8-11.8% of the initial weight; P <0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between relative weight loss and the number of recruited subjects per center (r = 0.38; P <0.001). In a multiple stepwise regression analysis, the number of recruited subjects per center appeared to be the main predictive factor of weight loss (R(2) = 0.07; P <0.001). As the number of participants within each center is clustered, we applied a hierarchical model to model the average weight loss vs. the number of participants included at each center. This model allows to predict that for 10 extra patients in a center, the average weight loss would increase by 0.5%. This is the first study suggesting that the number of recruited subjects per center may impact weight loss, and could therefore be considered as a new predictor for weight loss that is independent from the individual.

To test the accuracy of spatial registration of real-time ultrasonography (US) fused with MRI in a phantom.