JOINT TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT IN THE EVALUATION OF ANTI-ARTHRITIC AGENTS

Accurate evaluation of the improvement in rheu-matoid arthritis during therapy has always been greatly hampered by the lack of any quantitative criteria. Clinicians have depended upon a summa-tion of clinical observation and a lowering of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate to prove a lessening of arthritic activity (1). Such clinical observations as decrease in joint tenderness or swelling, or in-crease in range of motion of the affected joints are subject to great variation of interpretation, de-pending upon the experience and enthusiasm of the physician, and upon the usual fluctuations of the disease process itself. The patient is often so en-thusiastic about any new form of therapy that he minimizes his joint tenderness, and puts forth ex-tra effort in attempting motion. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate, for years the only laboratory index of degree of activity in rheumatoid arthritis, is a non-specific test. Decrease in the rate often lags far behind obvious clinical improvement, and the degree of elevation of the sedimentation rate is not always in proportion to the activity of the arthritis (2). The ideal yardstick for improvement must be objective, must show changes promptly when they occur; the gradient must be sufficient to overshadow technical errors, and it must be con-sistent under standard conditions. In previous reports, Hollander and Horvath (3, 4) have shown that the internal temperature of the rheumatoid arthritic joint appears to be elevated in close correlation with the amount of local in-flammation as estimated from careful clinical evalu-1 Read in part before the annual meeting of the Ameri

Improved measurement of B+->rho(+)rho(0) and determination of the quark-mixing phase angle alpha

We present improved measurements of the branching fraction B, the longitudinal polarization fraction f(L), and the direct CP asymmetry A(CP) in the B meson decay channel B+->rho(+)rho(0). The data sample was collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. The results are B(B+->rho(+)rho(0))=(23.7 +/- 1.4 +/- 1.4)x10(-6), f(L)=0.950 +/- 0.015 +/- 0.006, and A(CP)=-0.054 +/- 0.055 +/- 0.010, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. Based on these results, we perform an isospin analysis and determine the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa phase angle alpha=arg(-VtdVtb*/VudVub*) to be (92.4(-6.5)(+6.0))degrees