As reported in Bechterew-Brief No. 90, the 2002 DVMB research prize was awarded to Dr. Inge EHLEBRACHT-KÖNIG from the rehabilitation clinic in Bad Eilsen for her work on the evaluation of an education program for patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In the present issue, she presents her results in a patient-adapted version. She could show that the education program on AS (consisting of 6 modules on the disease and its diagnostics, on physiotherapy, coping with pain, drugs and surgery, every-day behaviour, and living with the disease, each 1½ hours) does not only improve the knowledge on the disease but also the mobility, compared to patients treated without this program. Furthermore, in the year after the intervention the patients educated had significantly less workdays lost and made less pension applications than patients of the control group. 

Two extended reports in this issue concern two major congresses where important research results on our disease were presented. One of these reports summarizes some results presented at the annual congress of the German Society of Rheumatology (DGRh) which took place in September 2002 in Berlin. The DGRh was founded in 1927 as one of the oldest in the world. A large poster wall showed milestones and persons standing for the 75 years of this society. Papers summarized in our report concern means facilitating an early diagnosis of AS, the use of the Internet by rheumatologists and patients, and results of AS therapy using radium-224, selective COX-2 blockers, or TNF-alpha blockers.

Our report on this congress is supplemented by parts of the opening speech by DGRh president G. R. BURMESTER (Berlin) on recent changes in rheumatology, and by my explanatory article “What is an monoclonal antibody?” based on an article which recently appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German version of Scientific American.

The other large congress summarized in this issue is the Third International Congress on Spondyloarthropathies which took place in October 2002 in Ghent (Belgium). I am glad that Dr. Jens KUIPERS, DVMB research prize winner of 2000, contributed an extended summary of the immunologic results presented at this congress. Three new models of the role of HLA-B27 in the pathogenesis of AS are discussed: the concept of misfolding of the molecule which may lead to an accumulation within the cell, the concept of HLA-B27 inducing an impaired P38 kinase activity which may lead to an impaired bacteria elimination, and the concept of unusual forms of HLA-B27 not stabilized by the β2 microglobulin molecule. Many other possible pathogenetic mechanisms are also discussed. Clinical results regarded in our report concern diagnostics by magnetoresonance imaging and ultrasound, associated diseases, and the observed time dependence of ankylosis in AS. Of special importance for AS patients were two posters on car driving with AS and on spinal fractures.
Both congress reports are illustrated by many photographs taken at the congresses and figures selected from the PowerPoint presentations shown.

Dr. Peter JÜNI from the university in Bern (Switzerland) analyzed the Celecoxib long-term arthritis safety study (CLASS) which is often quoted as argument in favour of the use of selective COX-2 blockers. He showed that the advantage of selective COX-2 blockers exists only in the first half year of their use and that there is no difference in the risk of gastro-intestinal side effects between Celecoxib and conventional NSAIDs after one year of use. One-year data are shown in the FDA website but not in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article. Our report is a patient-adapted translation of a publication in the British Medical Journal.

DVMB News:

The DVMB board nominated two additional Medical Advisors: Dr. Heinrich BÖHM from Bad Berka, specialist for spine surgery, and Dr. Stephan THURAU, ophthalmologist at the university of Munich concerned with uveitis as an autoimmune disease.

The Internet website of DVMB was elaborated more and more in recent years. It also shows Bechterew-Brief content tables and corresponding “Brief in English” pages as well as a number of selected Bechterew-Brief articles.