Is Colchicine Good For Rheumatoid Arthritis

Why Am I Taking Colchicine

Colchicine is prescribed as either a short-term medication to relieve your acute gout flare or as an ongoing, preventive treatment during the early stages of taking another medication to lower urate. Your doctor can prescribe colchicine to keep on hand in case you do have a gout flare.

Dont take colchicine to relieve other types of arthritis pain or back pain. Its effective in treating treat gout pain, but most types of arthritis dont respond to colchicine. Colchicine comes in a tablet that you swallow. You can take colchicine with or without food, but some people find it easier on the stomach to take with food. For an acute gout attack, its usually taken twice a day. You take one dose of colchicine when you first notice the symptoms, followed by a smaller dose one hour later, with no further doses for at least 12 hours.

This may be followed with doses of 0.6 mg once or twice daily . If you dont get relief within a few days, let your doctor know. You may need to switch to or add another medication.

Let your doctor know if you are allergic to any of these medications that could interact with colchicine:

Also, let your doctor know if you have ever had kidney disease, liver disease, or, for women, if youre pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. If you become pregnant while taking colchicine for gout, let your doctor know right away.

If you miss your dose of colchicine, take your dose as soon as you remember. Dont take your next dose for 12 hours.

Types Of Medication That Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis

SeeRheumatologist’s Role in Patient Care

When prescribing a medication, a physician will take into account the patients age, disease activity, and other medical conditions, but each patient is unique. Figuring out which medication or combination of medications work best for an individual can be challenging and often requires a process of trial and error.

Do Ra And Gout Have The Same Cause

Rheumatoid arthritis and gout both are types of arthritis, but the underlying causes are completely different. RA is an autoimmune condition. It happens when your bodyâs immune system attacks the tissue that lines your joints. This attack causes painful swelling, inflammation, and joint deformity. Since RA is an immune system disease , it can affect other parts of the body, too, including the skin, eyes, and heart.

Gout affects people with too much uric acid in their blood. Your body creates this type of acid when it breaks down certain foods, including meat. Your kidneys normally get rid of it when you pee. But when thereâs too much of it in your system, the uric acid can form crystals. These needle shaped crystals build up in joints and surrounding tissue where they can cause pain and inflammation.

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Effects On Other Treatments

Some drugs can interact with colchicine, so you should talk about any new medication with your doctor before starting it. You should also tell anyone else treating you that youre taking colchicine.

Speak to your doctor before taking colchicine if you take:

• certain antibiotics, such as clarithromycin or erythromycin
• medicines that affect your kidneys, liver or blood
• anti-viral medicines, such as ritonavir or atazanavir
• ciclosporin, which is used to treat psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and given after organ transplant
• anti-fungal medicines, such as ketoconazole, itraconazole and voriconazole
• certain heart medicines, such as verapamil, diltiazem or digoxin
• disulfiram, a medicine used to treat alcohol dependence.

If youre taking vitamin B12, colchicine may also prevent your body from absorbing it properly.

Dont use complementary treatments, such as herbal remedies, without discussing this first with your doctor or pharmacist as some of them could react with colchicine.

The Four Stages Of Gout

Gout is best understood by seeing it as having four phases or stages :

Stage 1: High uric acid

Elevated uric acid without gout or kidney stone, this stage has no symptoms and is generally not treated.

Stage 2: Acute flares

This stage is marked by acute gout attacks causing pain and inflammation in one or more joints.

Stage 3: Intercritical periods

These are periods of time between acute attacks, during which a person feels normal but is at risk for recurrence of acute attacks.

Stage 4: Advanced gout

This is a stage of chronic gouty arthritis, in which there are lumps of uric acid, or tophi , frequent attacks of acute gout, and often a degree of pain even between attacks .

Figure 1: Stages of Gout

Figure 2: Illustration of Toe Joint with Gouty Tophus. normal toe joint Urate crystals, shown in white, at the “bunion joint,” represent a gouty tophus.)

Figure 3: Progression of Gout

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When Is Surgery Considered For Gout

The question of surgery for gout most commonly comes up when a patient has a large clump of urate crystals , which is causing problems. This may be if the tophus is on the bottom of the foot, and the person has difficulty walking on it, or on the side of the foot making it hard to wear shoes. An especially difficult problem is when the urate crystals inside the tophus break out to the skin surface. This then can allow bacteria a point of entry, which can lead to infection, which could even track back to the bone. Whenever possible, however, we try to avoid surgery to remove tophi. The problem is that the crystals are often extensive, and track back to the bone, so there is not a good healing surface once the tophus is removed. In some rare cases, such as when a tophus is infected or when its location is causing major disability, surgical removal may be considered.

Since it is hard to heal the skin after a tophus is removed, a skin graft may be needed. For this reason, we often try hard to manage the tophus medically. If we give high doses of medication to lower the urate level, such as allopurinol, over time the tophus will gradually reabsorb. In severe cases, we may consider using the intravenous medication pegloticase , since it lowers the urate level the most dramatically, and can lead to the fastest shrinkage of the tophus.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging Variables

The specific subjects selected for MRI were pre-specified, without knowledge of their clinical data, as the 6th to 25th participants being randomized to colchicine and placebo respectively. This choice ensured, based on block randomization, that half would be colchicine-treated and half placebo-treated. The MRI examinations consist of a standardized set of acquisitions with specific positioning and localization requirements. The MRI imaging will be performed using a 3 Tesla Siemens Skyra with the signal knee immobilized in a 15 Channel Transmit/ Receive Knee coil. The intravenous contrast medium used will be Dotarem, 0.5 mmol/ml with a maximum administered volume of 10 ml. The whole knee joint will be scored by an experienced musculoskeletal radiologist blinded to clinical details of participants, using the Boston Leeds Osteoarthritis Knee Score . At the time of the screening evaluation, knee radiography of all patients will be performed with the SynaFlexor platform and variable beam angle as previously described to optimize images for serial joint space width measurements in the event of any future long-term follow-up of the participants in this trial.

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What Does A Gout Attack Look And Feel Like What Would A Foot Or Toe With Gout Look Like

When gout occurs, the joint tends to be extremely painful and is warm, red and swollen . The inflammation that is part of a gout attack is systemic, so that fever and chills, fatigue and malaise are not uncommonly part of the picture of a gout attack.

Figure 6: Toe with Acute Attack of Gout

Gout attacks can occur in joints that look normal, or in joints that have easily visible deposits of uric acid. These deposits are called tophi and can be in numerous locations, but especially on the feet and elbows. In Figure 9, the little finger of the right hand is bandaged since fluid was just removed from it, which demonstrated innumerable uric acid crystals.

Figure 7a: Tophi on Foot

Figure 7b: Tophus Over Achilles’ Tendon

Figure 8: Tophus on Elbow

Figure 9: Tophi on Hands

Figure 10: Large Tophus of Finger

While some gout attacks will solve quickly by themselves, the majority will go on for a week, several weeks, or even longer if not treated. Since gout attacks are usually quite painful and often make walking difficult, most gout sufferers will request specific treatment for their painful condition.

How Can A Gout Attack Be Prevented

Diet plays a key role diet in gout prevention: Since foods can directly set off gout attacks, patients with gout should receive counseling as to which foods are more likely to induce attacks. Losing weight is often also helpful. However, as important as diet is in gout, for most people with gout diet, and even weight loss, are not enough, and medications will be needed to get to their uric acid goal.

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Effect Of Colchicine Treatment On Primary Knee Osteoarthritic Patients

Tamer omar El said*1, MaiA Elkosaier1, Ibrahim AElboghdady1& Mohammed MElarman2

1Department of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Mansoura University Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura, Egypt

2Department of Clinical Pathology, Mansoura University Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura, Egypt

*Corresponding Author:

Department of Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Mansoura University Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura, EgyptE-mail:

Colchicine For Rheumatoid Arthritis Mosaic Weighted Blanket

We are in need of solutions that soothe joints or muscles. Colchicine For Rheumatoid Arthritis. Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis can be hard sometimes you need assistance stretching with deep tissue tools and finding relief while sleeping with the Mosaic weighted blanket.

I am seeing a ton of rave reviews regarding these Mosaic blankets. I had to dig deeper and I found out that Mosaics are specially designed to be 8-12% of your body weight. Were referring to the identical sort of hacks that provide calm to arthritis, anxiety, and also those that experience PTSD. Essentially, the idea is to give the feeling of being hugged or held to you. Of the warm and fuzzy feelings you get from this type of sensory input is replicated via an blanket. The majority of the times you experience pain or numbness in the joints or muscle its because you are not able to relax or stretch that muscle or joint.

This blanket, gives the experience of being hugged tight, which is as soothing no matter your age.

Anyone who has experienced this type of distress and sought relief understands how frustrating it can be.

So at about $150 for the blanket that can last years and help relieve pain and allow me to sleep its a no brainer.

But not all are created equally and just a few are made for breathability. Like any great idea, tons of brands pop up to provide inferior products for a excellent idea.

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Metabolism And Adverse Effects

Major mechanisms of colchicine metabolism and excretion

Colchicine is initially absorbed in the jejunum and ileum. P-Glycoprotein on the apical surface of enterocytes secretes a fraction of unchanged colchicine back into the lumen, from which it can be excreted. The remainder enters the systemic circulation and passes through the kidneys, where unchanged colchicine is excreted through glomerular filtration as well as through direct renal P-gp secretion into the proximal tubule. Within hepatocytes, colchicine undergoes demethylation into three distinct metabolites through the action of CYP3A4. These metabolites, along with a portion of unchanged colchicine, are secreted into the bile via hepatic P-gp, and thence into the duodenum for potential excretion.

Side Effects Of Colchicine

Colchicine may cause some side effects, such as:

• Diarrhea
• Stomach pain or cramping
• Vomiting

If these persist for hours or are severe, let your doctor know. Also, if you experience any of these side effects, alert your doctors office immediately:

• Muscle pain or muscle weakness
• Signs of an infection: sore throat, fever, chills, body aches u Fatigue or weakness
• Numb fingers or toes

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Colchicine For Symptom And Inflammation In Knee Osteoarthritis

The investigators therefore propose a RCT of colchicine to examine the effects on signs and symptoms of knee OA and to evaluate the mechanism of action through analysis of synovial fluid and systemic biomarker profiles.

Hypothesis: The investigators hypothesize that colchicine will block inflammasome mediated inflammation, thereby improve the signs and symptoms of OA, and reduce synovial fluid serum and urine inflammatory and biochemical joint degradation biomarkers.

Aim 1. To determine whether daily oral colchicine at standard clinical doses , compared to placebo, can decrease the pain of symptomatic OA knee and improve function when used as adjunctive daily therapy in addition to background therapy with the patient’s current stable analgesic regimen.

Information from the National Library of Medicine

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier : NCT02176460

Fertility Pregnancy And Breastfeeding

Talk to your doctor if you think you may be pregnant or are trying for a baby.

To be on the safe side, youll be advised to come off colchicine if you are pregnant, think you may be pregnant or are planning to have a baby. Women who could become pregnant should use effective contraception while taking colchicine.

If you are breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed, its usually recommended that you dont take colchicine as it may pass into breast milk.

There are some reports that colchicine can cause a reduced sperm count in men when taking long-term. But this is usually reversible when you stop treatment. There is no firm evidence that shows that taking colchicine reduces fertility in women.

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Colchicine Use In Rheumatoid Arthritis Mosaic Weighted Blanket

We are in need of solutions that soothe joints or painful muscles. Colchicine Use In Rheumatoid Arthritis. Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis may be difficult sometimes you need help stretching with deep tissue tools and finding relief when sleeping with the Mosaic weighted blanket.

I am seeing a ton of rave reviews regarding these Mosaic blankets. I needed to dig deeper and I discovered that Mosaics are designed to be 8-12% of your body weight. We are referring to the identical type of sensory hacks that give calm to people that experience PTSD, anxiety, and also arthritis. The idea is to give the feeling of being held or hugged to you. So all of the warm and fuzzy feelings you get from this type of sensory input is replicated via an weighted blanket. Most of the times you experience pain or numbness in the joints or muscle it is because youre unable to relax or stretch that joint or muscle.

This blanket, provides the experience of being hugged tight, which is as soothing regardless of your age.

Anyone who sought relief and has experienced this type of discomfort understands how frustrating it can be.

So at about $150 for the blanket that can last years and help relieve pain and help me sleep it is a no brainer.

But beware, not all are created equally and only a few are designed for breathability. Like any good idea, tons of brands pop up to provide products that are inferior for a excellent idea.

What Benefit Can You Expect From Your Treatment

Colchicine is most commonly used to prevent attacks of gout or pseudogout. It can also be used to treat acute attacks when nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen or ibuprofen cannot be used for safety reasons or have been ineffective.

Colchicine can be started during a sudden attack and often works straight away. If you are taking colchicine to relieve gout attack symptoms, start taking it at the first sign of pain.

Relief usually begins within 12 hours and symptoms often disappear within 24 hours.

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Can I Take Nsaids If I Have High Blood Pressure

Your doctor will check on that. NSAIDs can reduce blood flow to the kidneys, which may cause these organs not to work as well. This makes fluid build up in your body, which can raise your blood pressure.

So, if you take these meds, you will probably get a blood test from time to time to check how well your kidneys work.

Which Joints Are Involved In Gouty Arthritis And Why Is It Most Common In The Foot

As with all other known types of arthritis, Gout has particular joints it tends to attack, and the foot is its most common location. Gout especially favors the bunion joint, known as the first metatarsophalangeal joint , but the ankle, midfoot and knee are also common locations, as is the bursa that overlies the elbow.

The bunion joint is the first joint involved in 75% of patients and is ultimately involved in over 90% of those with this condition. . It is thought that this joint is especially involved in gout because it is the joint that receives the highest pounds per square inch of pressure when walking or running.

Late in gout, if untreated, multiple joints can be involved, including the fingers and wrists. The shoulder joint is very rarely involved by gout and the same is true of the hip.

Figure 5: Location of Gout Attacks

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