"Don't You Know Who I am?" (5.17.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past 2 weeks. This week's question: can we prevent gout, ILD or psoriasis?
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Legal (Not So) Merry-Go-Round of Alendronate Atypical Fractures
Dr. Gregory Curfman, MD (Executive editor of JAMA) writes on the chronological legal progress of a lawsuit stemming from rare instances of atypical femoral fractures associated with bisphosphonate (alendronate) use. While alendronate was FDA approved in 1995 for the prevention and
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Rheum Leaders on Capitol Hill Advocating for Medicare Payment Reform
ACR
On May 7th, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) hosted its annual Capitol Hill fly-in with rheumatology leaders nationwide to champion the need for crucial reforms to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). The goal is to enhance the payment system’s predictability and stability,
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Multiplicative Adverse Effects of Social Determinants of Health in Lupus Nephritis: A Meta-analysis and Systematic Review
A metanalysis shows that social determinants of health adversely impacts patients with lupus nephritis. Lupus nephritis is a significant complication of SLE, often with dramatic increases in morbid and mortal risks. Outcomes are likely to be augmented by social determinants of health, including
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Featured BSR Abstracts (5.2.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush muses on the news, journal reports, FDA announcements and the 2024 BSR abstracts just released.
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Rheum Chapter Notes (4.26.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week’s news and journal articles from RheumNow.com.
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Predicting CKD Outcomes in Lupus Nephritis
An observational cohort study suggests that proteinuria levels in lupus nephritis (LN) patients did not predict their histologic class.
A multicentre observational study of patients with biopsy-proven LN; either proliferative (PLN) or membranous (MLN) lupus nephritis were compared regarding
Self Acupressure in Knee Osteoarthritis
A clinical trial has shown that self-administered acupressure (SAA) is effective in relieving knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients.
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Canary in a Coal Mine (4.19.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews regulatory reports, news and novel journal articles - this week focusing on Sjogren's, ILD, Gout and Uveitis.
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BSR Guideline on Management of Sjogren’s Syndrome
Sjögren disease (SD) is the most common of all autoimmune disease, yet little is know of its etiology and there are insufficent interventions for those affected with mucosal or systemic manifestations.
The British Society of Rheumatology has updated its 2017 guidelines, with wider
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Burnout or Retire (4.12.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com. Is it time to worry about burnout and those who are leaving healthcare?
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CBD Products Disappointing for Pain
EurekAlert!
There is no evidence that CBD products reduce chronic pain, and taking them is a waste of money and potentially harmful to health, according to new research led by the University of Bath in the UK.
CBD (short for cannabidiol) is one of many chemicals found naturally in the cannabis
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13 Risk Factors for RA-associated Interstitial Lung Disease
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the most widespread and fatal pulmonary complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A recent metanalysis shows the pooled prevalence of RA-ILD was approximately 18.7%.
This systematic review included 56 studies with 11,851 RA-ILD patients. The
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Activity & Pain Tolerance (3.29.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com, including where you should sit in clinic and why you should worry about secondary Sjogren's in RA.
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Higher Rates of Childlessness in Rheumatic Diseases
A large Finnish population study shows that several rheumatic diseases may impair reproduction and pregnancy outcomes, with significantly higher rates of childlessness or fewer children overall for women.
A nationwide cohort study of 5 339 804 Finnish citizens, born 1964–1984,
Naysayers & Disrupters (3.22.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week - including a few contrary reports on infection, seropositivity and plasmapheresis.
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CV Risk Early with Rheumatic Disease Diagnosis
A Finnish populaton study shows that the temporal relationship between cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities in rheumatic diseases (RMD) is seen early after the RMD diagnosis.
Expert Panel Guidance on Managing Psoriatic Arthritis and Comorbidities
An expert panel has published their consensus guidelines for the management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and it's comorbidities in the journal Rheumatology.
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Chronic MSK Pain and Earlier Retirement
Frequent musculoskeletal pain is linked with an increased risk of exiting work and retiring earlier, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The study included 1,
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Top 10 Pharma R&D Budgets in 2023
Pharma budgets have undergone significant changes coming out of COVID. This year Merck & Co. has knocked Roche from previous years of leading in research and development (R&D) budgets and investments. In 2023 Merck invested a whopping $30 billion in R&D, nearly 51% of their 2023
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US Trends in RA DMARD Use 2017-2021
A trend analysis of DMARDs shows that only half of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are taking DMARDs, and that the COVID-19 pandemic substantially affected DMARD use. Despite numerous DMARD advances and evolving treatment guidelines since 1990, older therapies are still commonly used and
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Again, a High Mortality with Depression and RA
Last week we reported on a Korean study showing a 66% elevated mortality risk in RA patients (n=38,487) with depression. This week, a new report shows depression in RA increases the mortality risk by more
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9 Facts about Leflunomide
Medscape has published an informative review of leflunomide, drawn from Dr. Eric Ruderman’s recent lecture on the subject at the February RWCS meeting in Maui.
Leflunomide was FDA approved in 1998 for rheumatoid arthritis, roughly around the same time infliximab and etanercept
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Depression and RA (3.8.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and regulatory approvals from the past week.
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19% Arthritis Prevalence in the USA
According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), in 2022, the prevalence of diagnosed arthritis in adults was 18.9% (women 21.5%, more than men 16.1%). These numbers are down since the CDC's MMWR report of 2019–2021, where is was estimated 21.2% of U.S. adults (53.2 million) had
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