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The incidence of knee osteoarthritis tends to increase every year and constitutes more than 83% of overall OA morbidity. Moreover, the OA morbidity among younger patients is also increasing. However, currently available treatment methods do not provide quite satisfactory outcomes.Purpose of the study – to evaluate safety and efficacy of intraarticular introduction of autologous adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction for treatment of knee osteoarthritis.Material and methods. By the moment of writing the present report, 28 patients were included into the study. All patients underwent tumescent liposuction under local anesthesia. The stromal vascular fraction was isolated from lipoaspirate within 1,5 hours after harvesting and subsequently injected into the articular cavity. Follow-up period was 6 months after injections. The authors report on efficacy data of 10 patients who completed the study according to protocol and safety data of all 28 patients. Efficacy was evaluated basing on laboratory assessments and patient’s subjective assessment by validated questionnaires.Results. Neither adverse reactions no adverse events were observed. Significant decrease of pain severity by VAS was noted in one week after injection and pain score continued decreasing during the whole follow up period. The increase of KOOS score was noted starting on the fifth week after injection. KSS part 1 score increased in 8 weeks, KSS part 2 score — in 6 months after injection. Physical health, assessed with SF-36 questionnaire significantly improved in 2 and 6 months after the procedure. There was a clear trend towards improvement of mental health.Conclusion. Preliminary results of clinical study suggest intraarticular injection of autologous adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction to be a safe and efficient method of the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: to study clinical presentations, disease activity, and functional impairments in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA).Subjects and methods. A total of 153 patients were examined in the period 2010 to 2013. They were divided into two groups: 1) 119 patients with a valid diagnosis of AS; 2) 34 with nr-axSpA. BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI, MASES, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and HLA-B27 antigen were determined in both groups. The mean age of the patients was 36.5±0.7 years and 27.0±1.2 years and the disease duration 14.7±0.6 and 4.1±0.5 years in Groups 1 and 2, respectively.Results and discussion. Among the patients with AS and those with nr-axSpA, men accounted for 68.9 and 70.6%, respectively. The axial type was predominant in both groups (53.7% in Group 1 and 67.6% in Group 2). The mean visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score was 40.6±1.6 mm in Group 1 and 31.6±2.4 mm in Group 2 (p < 0.01). High BASDAI was seen in 51.2% of the patients with AS and 41.1% of those with nr-axSpA. Group 2 had significantly lower mean BASDAI values (3.4±0.2) than Group 1 (4.0±0.1). Functional impairments by BASFI were more obvious in the patients with AS ((3.2±0.2) than in those with nr-axSpA (1.5±0.2). BASFI >4 was not noted in Group 2. Higher BASMI scores were found in the patients with AS (1.9±0.1) than in those with nr-axSpA (0.5±0.1). Conclusion. The ASAS criteria for axSpA enable one to establish its diagnosis in the early stage until stable functional impairments emerge. In the pre-radiographic stage, the patients have lower disease activity and pain.