Retraction Note : Clin Rheumatol (2004) 23:383–389

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-004-0881-z

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article [1]. After publication, serious concerns were raised with respect to the ethical oversight, methodology and authorship. Keiyu Orthopaedic Hospital has not been able to confirm that appropriate ethics approval was obtained. The Editor-in-Chief no longer has confidence in this article. Jun Iwamoto has not responded to correspondence from the Editor-in-Chief or publisher about this retraction. The Editor-in-Chief and the publisher were not able to obtain current email addresses for Tsuyoshi Takeda and Mitsuyoshi Uzawa. Yoshiro Sato is deceased.