Glasgow scientists awarded grant from arthritis charity
SCIENTISTS in Glasgow have been awarded by a grant of £42,545 by leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign for work which could help sufferers of a little known arthritic condition.
A team led by Dr William Ferrell, reader in clinical physiology in the Centre for Rheumatic Diseases at the Royal Infirmary, will spend the next 18 months trying to find new treatments and therapies for hypermobility syndrome (HMS).
"This is a condition in which patients have an abnormally large range of joint movement accompanied by painful joints – but without any evidence of significant inflammatory joint disease such as rheumatoid arthritis," explained Dr Ferrell.
"At present there is no specific treatment of this condition, and it is not a well recognised entity."
The team believes that patients with HMS could also be predisposed to developing osteoarthritis, the degenerative joint disease which seriously affects around 1.5 million people in the UK.
"This project is intended to further investigate this possibility, and establish whether a physiotherapy rehabilitation programme designed to improve muscle tone and awareness of joint position can improve the outcome for these patients, "added Dr Ferrell.
Arthritis and rheumatic disease affect around 8m people in the UK and disable 3million. The ARC, which is the only medical research charity dedicated to finding a cure, raised more than £20m from public donations in the past 12 months.
