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American Morning
Help Could Be on Way if You Suffer From Rheumatoid Arthritis
Aired October 29, 2002 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time for our morning "House Call." Welcome back. Help could be on the way if you're one of the nearly six million people who suffer from painful rheumatoid arthritis. It comes in the form of some new drugs. Joining us now from Atlanta is our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He also has some intriguing news about cities that are being designated as asthma hotspots. We'll come back to this. First, let's start with arthritis this morning. What's new here? Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Yes, we're talking about rheumatoid arthritis here, Paula. It's one of the severe forms of arthritis. You've see patients that walk around with that. They have the big swollen knuckles in their hands and in their feet often, very debilitating problem. I've heard stories about people taking two to three hours sometimes to get out of bed in the morning, so sometimes you see patients like this. It can be very problematic. Some of the symptoms specifically of rheumatoid arthritis include pain and swelling in the hands and foot joints, generalized aching or stiffness of the joints and muscles. And loss of motion of the affected joins. This is going to be very problematic.
These joints actually freeze sometimes, Paula, so they don't actually move at all. Look at some of the other symptoms as well, loss of strength in all the affected areas, low-grade fevers, deformity of the joints and the joints get frozen and deformed at the same time. Now having said all that, there is really no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, and we're not exactly sure what causes it, but there has been some real significant progress in treatment over the last several, 25 years or so.
Basically, when someone is first diagnosed with arthritis of any sort, the first line of therapy is going to be nonsteroid (ph) antiinflammatory drugs.
But now, look at this whole host of other drugs as well that has now been developed to try and treat rheumatoid arthritis.
What people are getting excited about now, Paula, though, is a new drug. It's developed by Roche and Genentech. It's called Retuxan, and basically it is a new medication that has been studied to try and actually put rheumatoid arthritis into remission, that is to make someone symptom-free for up to three years. This is a medication that has actually been on the market, already for other things, like the treatment of Hodgkin's Disease, but people are looking at it, and they're saying it seems to work well for rheumatoid arthritis as well. It works by a totally different mechanism than any of the other drugs I just showed you work by. So people are getting excited -- Paula.
ZAHN: How long before you can get this drug?
GUPTA: The drug is already out there, as I said, approved for other things. The FDA still has to look at it to see whether or not this medication will be licensed specifically for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It looks favorable right now.
One of the things I'll mention is that this drug works in a different way, because rheumatoid arthritis is believed to be what is known as an autoimmune problem. That's when the body's own immune cells look at certain cells in the body and say, you know what, those cells look abnormal, those cells look foreign. Those look like cells we should attack, and that's what rheaumatoid arthritis is probably predicated on. This medication actually interferes with that process, so as to try and stop the immune system from actually attacking its own body.
One of the side effects their most concerned about, though, as you can probably imagine, is actually causing immunal suppression. That's what they're going to be checking out. If it's not a significant side effect, it will probably be approved in the next two to three years.
ZAHN: Let's come to that other story you're working today, the asthma hotspot list. How reliable are those?
GUPTA: I'll tell you, this is an independent status station that tried to look at, what are all the things that make asthma a particular challenge in metropolitan areas, and they looked at only metropolitan cities within the continental United States, and they came up with a pretty impressive list. They looked at things like pollen count, overall dust and mold areas, access to asthma specialists, the number of asthma medications that are prescribed each year. Let's take a look at the hotspots, the places that are actually the worst places, Tucson, Arizona, people are sort of surprised by that, Kansas City, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, twice Arizona, Fresno, California, and New York, New York at the top of the list.
The bottom of the list, i.e. the best places to actually go. You can see Middlesex, New Jersey, McAllen, Texas, San Jose, California, Monmouth-Ocean, New Jersey, Orange County, California.
Paula, your question is absolutely the right one, how reliable is that? These are is just sort of an idea of where is going to be the most challenging place to live, and the least challenging places to live if you have asthma.
ZAHN: And you're basically talking environmental factors which trigger attacks?
GUPTA: They look at all sorts of different environment effects. They look at the size of the suburban development, they look at secondhand smoke in that particular area, exposure to certain chemicals. You can see the whole list there, but basically, they find that people in those particular areas that made the top of the list, being the worst places, actually have more of those risk factors. They have less access to asthma specialists and things like that -- Paula.
ZAHN: Really interesting stuff. Thanks, doctor.
GUPTA: Thanks. See you soon.
ZAHN: We'll let you take a little time off so you can find two more stories again tomorrow. Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Arthritis>
Aired October 29, 2002 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time for our morning "House Call." Welcome back. Help could be on the way if you're one of the nearly six million people who suffer from painful rheumatoid arthritis. It comes in the form of some new drugs. Joining us now from Atlanta is our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He also has some intriguing news about cities that are being designated as asthma hotspots. We'll come back to this. First, let's start with arthritis this morning. What's new here? Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Yes, we're talking about rheumatoid arthritis here, Paula. It's one of the severe forms of arthritis. You've see patients that walk around with that. They have the big swollen knuckles in their hands and in their feet often, very debilitating problem. I've heard stories about people taking two to three hours sometimes to get out of bed in the morning, so sometimes you see patients like this. It can be very problematic. Some of the symptoms specifically of rheumatoid arthritis include pain and swelling in the hands and foot joints, generalized aching or stiffness of the joints and muscles. And loss of motion of the affected joins. This is going to be very problematic.
These joints actually freeze sometimes, Paula, so they don't actually move at all. Look at some of the other symptoms as well, loss of strength in all the affected areas, low-grade fevers, deformity of the joints and the joints get frozen and deformed at the same time. Now having said all that, there is really no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, and we're not exactly sure what causes it, but there has been some real significant progress in treatment over the last several, 25 years or so.
Basically, when someone is first diagnosed with arthritis of any sort, the first line of therapy is going to be nonsteroid (ph) antiinflammatory drugs.
But now, look at this whole host of other drugs as well that has now been developed to try and treat rheumatoid arthritis.
What people are getting excited about now, Paula, though, is a new drug. It's developed by Roche and Genentech. It's called Retuxan, and basically it is a new medication that has been studied to try and actually put rheumatoid arthritis into remission, that is to make someone symptom-free for up to three years. This is a medication that has actually been on the market, already for other things, like the treatment of Hodgkin's Disease, but people are looking at it, and they're saying it seems to work well for rheumatoid arthritis as well. It works by a totally different mechanism than any of the other drugs I just showed you work by. So people are getting excited -- Paula.
ZAHN: How long before you can get this drug?
GUPTA: The drug is already out there, as I said, approved for other things. The FDA still has to look at it to see whether or not this medication will be licensed specifically for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. It looks favorable right now.
One of the things I'll mention is that this drug works in a different way, because rheumatoid arthritis is believed to be what is known as an autoimmune problem. That's when the body's own immune cells look at certain cells in the body and say, you know what, those cells look abnormal, those cells look foreign. Those look like cells we should attack, and that's what rheaumatoid arthritis is probably predicated on. This medication actually interferes with that process, so as to try and stop the immune system from actually attacking its own body.
One of the side effects their most concerned about, though, as you can probably imagine, is actually causing immunal suppression. That's what they're going to be checking out. If it's not a significant side effect, it will probably be approved in the next two to three years.
ZAHN: Let's come to that other story you're working today, the asthma hotspot list. How reliable are those?
GUPTA: I'll tell you, this is an independent status station that tried to look at, what are all the things that make asthma a particular challenge in metropolitan areas, and they looked at only metropolitan cities within the continental United States, and they came up with a pretty impressive list. They looked at things like pollen count, overall dust and mold areas, access to asthma specialists, the number of asthma medications that are prescribed each year. Let's take a look at the hotspots, the places that are actually the worst places, Tucson, Arizona, people are sort of surprised by that, Kansas City, Missouri, Phoenix, Arizona, twice Arizona, Fresno, California, and New York, New York at the top of the list.
The bottom of the list, i.e. the best places to actually go. You can see Middlesex, New Jersey, McAllen, Texas, San Jose, California, Monmouth-Ocean, New Jersey, Orange County, California.
Paula, your question is absolutely the right one, how reliable is that? These are is just sort of an idea of where is going to be the most challenging place to live, and the least challenging places to live if you have asthma.
ZAHN: And you're basically talking environmental factors which trigger attacks?
GUPTA: They look at all sorts of different environment effects. They look at the size of the suburban development, they look at secondhand smoke in that particular area, exposure to certain chemicals. You can see the whole list there, but basically, they find that people in those particular areas that made the top of the list, being the worst places, actually have more of those risk factors. They have less access to asthma specialists and things like that -- Paula.
ZAHN: Really interesting stuff. Thanks, doctor.
GUPTA: Thanks. See you soon.
ZAHN: We'll let you take a little time off so you can find two more stories again tomorrow. Thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Arthritis>
