[Treatment of patients with osteoarthritis]. / Tratamiento del paciente con artrosis.

The therapeutic management of patients with osteoarthritis aims to decrease pain and inflammation, improve physical function, and to apply safe and effective treatments. A patient-centered approach implies the active participation of the patient in the design of the treatment plan and in timely and informed decision-making at all stages of the disease. The nucleus of treatment is patient education, physical activity and therapeutic exercise, together with weight control in overweight or obese patients. Self-care by the individual and by the family is fundamental in day-to-day patient management. The use of physical therapies, technical aids (walking sticks, etc.) and simple analgesics, opium alkaloids, and antiinflammatory drugs have demonstrated effectiveness in controlling pain, improving physical function and quality of life and their use is clearly indicated in the treatment of osteoarthritis. Conservative surgery and joint replacement is indicated when treatment goals are not achieved in specific patients.

Development of an application for mobile phones (App) based on the collaboration between the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and Spanish Society of Family Medicine for the referral of systemic autoimmune diseases from primary care to rheumatology. / Desarrollo de una aplicación para teléfonos móviles (app) basada en la colaboración Sociedad Española de Reumatología/Sociedad Española de Medicina de Familia y Comunitaria para derivación de enfermedades autoinmunes sistémicas.

Management of systemic autoimmune diseases is challenging for physicians in their clinical practice. Although not common, they affect thousands of patients in Spain. The family doctor faces patients with symptoms and non-specific cutaneous, mucous, joint, vascular signs or abnormal laboratory findings at the start of the disease process and has to determine when to refer patients to the specialist. To aid in disease detection and better referral, the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and the Spanish Society of Family Medicine has created a group of experts who selected 26 symptoms, key signs and abnormal laboratory findings which were organized by organ and apparatus. Family doctors and rheumatologists with an interest in autoimmune systemic diseases were selected and formed mixed groups of two that then elaborated algorithms for diagnostic guidelines and referral. The algorithms were then reviewed, homogenized and adapted to the algorithm format and application for cell phone (apps) download. The result is the current Referral document of systemic autoimmune diseases for the family doctor in paper format and app (download). It contains easy-to-use algorithms using data from anamnesis, physical examination and laboratory results usually available to primary care, that help diagnose and refer patients to rheumatology or other specialties if needed.

[Effect of the Helicobacter pylori eradication in patients with functional dyspepsia: randomised placebo-controlled trial]. / Efecto del tratamiento erradicador en pacientes con dispepsia funcional e infección por Helicobacter pylori: ensayo clínico aleatorizado frente a placebo.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The Helicobacter pylori eradication in patients with functional dyspepsia has been the subject of controversy because trials come to contradictory conclusions. The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect, compared with placebo, of the eradication treatment in patients with functional dyspepsia. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Randomized double blind placebo controlled trial. We included 158 patients attended by family physicians (Area 10 Primary Care, Health Institute of Madrid) with functional dyspepsia and Helicobacter pylori infection detected by the ureasa test in endoscopy. An OCA (ameprazole clarithromycin and amoxicillin group (n = 79) and a placebo group (n = 79) were randomized. During 7 days, patients at the OCA group received omeprazole (20 mg bid), clarithromycin (500 mg bid) and amoxicillin (1000 mg bid) daily, and patients at the control group received the placebo agent twice daily. Dyspepsia improvement according to a Likert scale (5 steps), and eradication of H. pylori by 13C-urea breath test were evaluated during one year. RESULTS: Both groups were homogeneous in relation to age, sex and dyspepsia degree. The average age (standard deviation) of studied patients was 41.99 (13.93) years. At one year of follow up, H. pylori was eradicated in 81.01% (64/79) of the OCA group and 5.06% (4/79) of the placebo group. The difference of dyspepsia improvement (22.78%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 7.62-37.79) between the OCA group (41.77%; 95% CI, 30.77-53.41), and the placebo group (18.99%; 95% CI 11.03-29.38) was significant (p = 0.0018). CONCLUSION: Eradication of Helicobacter pylori in patients with functional dyspepsia is more effective improving symptoms than placebo.

[Pharmaco-economic optimization of cholesterol-lowering treatment with statins]. / Optimización fármaco-económica del tratamiento de la hipercolesterolemia con estatinas.

Current guidelines for the management of hypercholesterolemia identify LDL cholesterol (LDL-c) reduction as the primary therapeutic target and have highlighted the need to use statins to achieve it. There are six statins with four different doses and with different power-reducing LDL-c. By adding ezetimibe, there are 48 therapeutic possibilities. This extensive offer provides pharmaceutical treatment, but it is difficult to choose the most cost-effective statin because it is very difficult to remember all the powers and costs of treatment options. This paper offers a method to prioritize the best cost-effective lipid lowering, and chooses the cheapest statin that achieves the desired therapeutic goal of LDL-c.