Posted by ed_uk on July 8, 2005, at 15:32:19
Doxycycline, a common antibiotic, may be useful in osteoarthritis..........
Doxycycline may slow osteoarthritis progress
Doxycycline slows the rate of disease progression in osteoarthritis of the knee, according to researchers.Kenneth Brandt, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, and colleagues conducted a randomised controlled trial involving 431 obese women with unilateral radiographic knee osteoarthritis. Participants received 100mg doxycycline or placebo twice daily for 30 months. Joint space narrowing in the knee indicative of thinning of articular cartilage was measured at baseline, 16 and 30 months and severity of pain was recorded at six-monthly intervals.
The researchers found that the mean loss of joint space width at 16 months was 40 per cent less in the doxycycline group than in the placebo group (0.15±0.42mm vs 0.24±0.54mm; P=0.027). At 30 months it was 33 per cent less in the doxycycline group (0.30±0.60mm vs 0.45±0.70mm; P=0.017).
The mean severity of joint pain was not reduced by doxycycline, although the researchers note that the frequency of follow-up visits at which participants reported a 20 per cent or greater increase in pain compared with the previous visit was lower in the doxycycline group (P=0.004).
In both knees, the rate of joint space narrowing was more than twice as rapid in subjects who reported frequent increases in knee pain as in those with a stable pain score, appearing to validate the clinical importance of retardation of articular cartilage loss, say the researchers.
They note that doxycycline did not have a significant effect on joint space narrowing or pain severity in the opposite knee and suggest that it may have interfered with processes driving cartilage breakdown in the osteoarthritic knee (Arthritis & Rheumatism 2005;52:2015).
poster:ed_uk
thread:525023
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050708/msgs/525023.html