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Public lecture on arthritis

28/02/2008
 
Professor George Kitas, Honorary Professor of Rheumatology, Musculosketal Health and Exercise at the University, will give the next public lecture on Wednesday, 5 March 2008.Image of Professor George Kitas, Honorary professor of Rheumatology, used for Feb 2008 article Public lecture on arthritis‌
 
Prof Kitas is the Head of Rheumatology and Director of Research and Development at the Dudley Group of Hospitals, and Associate International Director (Europe) of the Royal College of Physicians of London.
 
He said: “Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is the commonest form of inflammatory arthritis and affects about one per cent of adults. The commonest cause of death is heart disease and people with RA have a higher chance of getting and dying from it compared with the average person. This has been recognised in the last decade in the scientific community, but awareness of it from the public and medical profession remains low.
 
“I will be addressing the possible causes of, and ways to deal with, this problem for this lecture.”
 
Prof Kitas currently leads a major, nationwide study funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign and the British Heart Foundation to see if taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins, reduces the number of rheumatoid arthritis patients having heart attacks and strokes.
 
The free public lecture will be at 6pm in the Millennium City Building on Wolverhampton City Campus. For further details visit www.wlv.ac.uk/publiclecture  or call the Graduate School on 01902 323344.

Further information

For media inquiries, contact Vickie Woodward in the Press Office on 01902 322736 or 07973 335112.
 
For further information about Prof Kitas’ current research into rheumatoid arthritis, visit the TRACE RA (Trial of Atorvastatin in the primary prevention of Cardiovascular Events in RA) trial website: http://www.dgoh.nhs.uk/tracera . The Arthritis Research Campaign website is www.arc.org.uk/
 

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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