"In the past three decades there has been a major sea change in the way healthcare is taught and carried out. Healthcare has been transformed from a "this is what you do" concept to a profession that has a significant educational and scientific basis with an ethos of evidence-based material. The healthcare professional is now more educated, very often to the degree and masters level. As a consequence, Practice and Procedures are continually changing with a corresponding improvement in healthcare. Concomitantly, the demand for comprehensive and focused evidenced-based text and scientific literature covering single areas of nursing and healthcare science or treatment has also increased. This then is the rational for the present series. The volume on Arthritis covers, rheumatoid arthritis, cytokines, leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors, alleles, cardiovascular risk, disease outcomes, treatment protocols, and drugs for arthritis. The series is designed for student nurses, practicing healthcare workers, qualified nurses and healthcare practioners, post graduates, special project students, teachers, lecturers and professors of nursing and healthcare. It is also suitable for college, university or nursing school libraries as a reference guide"-- Provided by publisher.