Rheumatology Unit, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Correspondence to: H. Amital, Rheumatology Unit, Depart-ment of Medicine, Hadassah Medical Center, Ein-Karem, POB 12000, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. E-mail: amitalh{at}netvision.net.il
Thank you for the interesting comments of Olive et al. [1], which substantiate our view of the role that pamidronate plays in the SAPHO syndrome. Similar to previous data, they have shown that acute-phase reactants such as C-reactive protein do not decrease following therapy with pamidronate [2]. These results also reflect our unpublished results; however, they clearly contribute to current knowledge by demonstrating clinical improvement based on the visual analogue scale completed by all patients. It is not clear, however, how this improvement was defined by the patients and whether the authors also measured the degree of pain experienced by the patients. We have also noticed such a trend among the patients we have treated [3]. None of the reported patients experienced any type of phlebitis, but a single patient who was treated with pamidronate after completing our study experienced such an adverse event.
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
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