Background: CT scanning of ancient human remains has the potential to provide insights into health and diseases. While Egyptian mummies have undergone CT scans in prior studies, a systematic survey of the orthopedic conditions afflicting a group of these ancient individuals has never been carried out. Methods: We performed whole body CT scanning on 52 ancient Egyptian mummies using technique comparable to that of medical imaging. All of the large joints and the spine were systematically examined and osteoarthritic (OA) changes were scored 0‐4 using Kellgren and Lawrence classification. Results: The cruciate ligaments and menisci could be identified frequently. There were much more frequent OA changes in the spine (25 mummies) than in the large joints (15 cases of acromioclavicular and/or glenohumeral joint OA changes, five involvement of the ankle, one in the elbow, four in the knee, and one in the hip). There were six cases of scoliosis. Individual mummies had the following conditions: juvenile aseptic necrosis of the hip (Perthes disease), stage 4 osteochondritis dissecans of the knee, vertebral compression fracture, lateral patella‐femoral joint hyper‐compression syndrome, severe rotator cuff arthropathy, rotator cuff impingement, hip pincer impingement, and combined fracture of the greater trochantor and vertebral bodies indicating obvious traumatic injury. This report includes the most ancient discovery of several of these syndromes. Conclusions: Ancient Egyptians often suffered painful orthopedic conditions. The high frequency of scoliosis merits further study. The pattern of degenerative changes in the spine and joints may offer insights into activity levels of these people. Anat Rec, 298:1036–1046, 2015.

Purpose: Ibuprofen sustained release (SR) has been shown to provide effective symptomatic pain relief in chronic arthritic conditions such as osteoarthritis in European and US patient populations. Few studies have been conducted in other patient populations. A 4-week prospective multicenter open-label observational study was designed to explore and describe the combined effect of ibuprofen SR and standard medical care in patients suffering from osteoarthritis in 15 general medical practices in Egypt. Patients and methods: In total, 519 patients were prescribed ibuprofen SR 2 ×800 mg once daily for 4 weeks. Results: Ibuprofen SR combined with standard medical care significantly improved day and night pain, with 99.4% of the patients reporting improvement. The treatment reduced the symptom severity of joint tenderness/stiffness and the duration of morning stiffness, and allowed more patients to carry out normal activities. Overall compliance with the prescribed ibuprofen SR regimen was 98.6%. Ibuprofen SR was generally well tolerated with no serious adverse events reported during the study. There was no increase in blood pressure or heart rate. Conclusion: The combined treatment provided effective relief of pain in patients with osteoarthritis in a large real-life general medical practice setting in Egypt. Owing to its convenient once-daily dosing regimen, ibuprofen SR may enhance patient compliance.

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease with longtime activity and multisystem affection. Nailfold capillaroscopy (NC) is a simple noninvasive microscopic tool useful for identification of nailfold microvasculopathy. Objective: The present study aimed to compare NC findings in patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PsV) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) with different clinical domains. Methods: The present cross-sectional study included 200 psoriasis patients classified into five 40-patient groups: group I (GI) included PsA patients with predominant peripheral arthritis; group II (GII) included PsA patients with predominant peripheral arthritis and dactylitis and/or enthesitis; group III (GIII) included PsA patients with predominant axial affection; group IV (GIV) patients included PsA patients with predominant axial affection and dactylitis and/or enthesitis and group V (GV) included patients with PsV. In addition, there were 40 age and sex-matched healthy controls (GVI). Results: The studied patients had capillary density of 6.7 ± 3.5/mm with 90 patients (45.0 %) having reduced capillary density. GI-GIV patients had significantly lower capillary density and higher frequency of patients with reduced capillary density as compared to GV patients. The reported capillary dimension in the studied patients is 15.7 ± 7.9 μm and 55 patients (27.5 %) had large/giant capillaries. Patients in GV had significantly lower capillary dimension in comparison to GI-GIV patients. There were 64 patients (32.0 %) with abnormal capillary morphology and 47 patients (23.5 %) with capillary hemorrhages. Conclusions: PsA patients of all domains have lower capillary density and larger capillary dimensions as compared to PsV patients.

To describe various demographic, clinical, laboratory, and capillaroscopic features of Egyptian patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and to explore the relation between various capillaroscopic features and internal organ involvement as well as other disease parameters. In this cross-sectional multi-centric prospective analysis, two hundred twenty-two adult patients with SSc were recruited. Data regarding general and rheumatological examination including the modified Rodnan skin score (MRSS), internal organ involvement and related imaging and laboratory investigations were collected. Both activity and severity indices were measured. Nail fold capillary microscopy (NFC) was performed for 144 patients. Out of 222 patients; 139 (62.6%) had limited type while 83 (37.4%) had diffuse type, middle aged females were predominant (91%). Peripheral vascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal and general manifestations were the most frequently documented affection with high activity, severity profiles and bad prognostic features in more than half of the patients. MRSS was above 20 in 122 patients (55%), and 126 patients (56.8%) had pulmonary hypertension (SPAP) while 78.4% had ILD which showed a weak correlation to age and disease duration (r = 0.135, r = − 0.152 respectively). Significant weak correlations were found between disease duration and SPAP (r = 0.134), Medseger’s severity score (r = 0.189), peripheral vascular, skin, and GIT affection severity (r = 0.210, 0.135, and 0.196 respectively). Significant difference was observed between different NFC patterns and antibodies, severity scale, some disease manifestations i.e.: general, gastrointestinal, myopathy, and digital ulceration while no significance was found between NFC patterns and the type of SSc. This study provided a comprehensive clinical and laboratory characterization of a large cohort of Egyptian patients with SSc which reflects a more severe disease with unfavorable prognostic aspects compared to the available world-wide reports. Nail fold capillaroscopy showed many associations to different aspects of the disease especially in late and active capillaroscopic features, if introduced early, it may improve the disease outcome.