Rheumatology UCT for Android

11 things about Rheumatology UCT

1. Newer areas of research include the study of chronic tophaceous GOUT; community aspects of diagnosing and treating rheumatic diseases at CHC’s; early rheumatoid arthritis; genetics of bone loss in SLE; and functional problems in ankylosing spondylitis and DMARDs in Psoriatic Arthritis.

2. The Division is highly suited for training super specialists in Rheumatology due to the wide spectrum of rheumatic diseases that are treated in the different clinics.

3. Osteoporosis is an area of interest for many years and there is ongoing collection of longitudinal bone mineral density data in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

4. In addition, a weekly Connective Tissue Diseases clinic has been established for treating patients with SLE, Scleroderma, Myositis and different forms of vasculitis, especially Takayasu’s Disease.

5. Age-related bone loss at different skeletal sites is being prospectively studied in collaboration with the Department of Nuclear Medicine and the Endocrine Unit.

6. The Division of Rheumatology has several research interests relating to different aspects of the rheumatic diseases.

7. Collaborative research is being carried out with the Liver Unit to study bone density in auto-immune hepatitis.

8. The rheumatic diseases unit provides in- and outpatient rheumatology services for the entire Western Cape region.

9. Clinical drug trials are in progress to study the safety and efficacy of the newer non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), in collaboration with the GIT Unit.

10. More recently, we have been involved in studies looking at the short-term and long-term effects of biologic therapiesin the different rheumatic diseases, especially RA.

11. In addition, there is very significant involvement in clinical drug trials in rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriatic arthritis and osteoarthritis.