Useful Evidence of Pinch Power for Evaluation of Opening PTP in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

摘要

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease. Patients with RA have variety of difficulties such as pain, and deformity of joints. These handicapped conditions always affect the activity of daily life. One of the serious hopes among patients is taking drug properly without difficulty. So the drug packaging with proper usability is highly demanded. Since Push through Packages (PTP) is the most commonly used drug packages, better usability is critical for patients with RA. Four-teen patients with RA were asked to open different 3 sizes PTP, and give self-evaluation using Visual-Analog Scale (VAS). And pinch power of each patient was measured with Isoforce TG-300 (OG GIKEN KK.). Tree size PTP sheets include A; 5mm<, B; 5~10mm, C; 10~15mm respectively, and all of them are commonly used in Japan. Average of pinch power of participants was 3.11.7kgf. There was the correlation between VAS and pinch power in every size PTP. Four participants whose pinch power was below 1.5kgf were not able to open PTP sheets. There was not always relation with clinical severity (Stage) score and VAS. To make the high usability PTP sheet, package which is opened with below 5kgl pinch power could be accessible for majority of users, including handicaps associated with the hands.