"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?
Read Article
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
Read Article
Antacids can Diminish Bone Density
EurekAlert!
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), a specific class of antacid drugs, are among the most widely used medications of all. They are frequently prescribed to many groups of patients, including those with rheumatism. PPIs are used to prevent the stomach problems that can arise from taking certain
Read Article
Consensus Statements on Vitamin D
The “Controversies in Vitamin D” International Conference has published their proceedings on vitamin D metabolism, assessment, actions, and supplementation. Interestingly, optimal levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) are still being debated.
Varying recommendations by society
Read Article
Infectious Mortality in Autoimmune Rheumatic Disorders
Infectious conditions are a significant cause of mortality in autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD). Among patients hospitalized with an infection, we compared in-hospital and long-term (3-year) mortality between those with and without ARD.
Small-molecule Drugs to Treat Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
A metanalysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on treatments of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), confirm the efficacy of several targeted small-molecule drugs.
Interferons and Lupus Subsets
EurekAlert!
In a new study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have uncovered insights as to the relationship between interferons and lupus, which affects up to 1.5 million Americans.
Read Article
Risk Factors for Hydroxychloroquine Retinopathy
A long-term hydroxychloroquine users study found that 2.7% developed retinopathy, and identified risk factors as increasing age, female sex, chronic kidney disease stage 3+ and tamoxifen use.
This Kaiser Permanente cohort study of 4677 patients initiating hydroxychloroquine, and
Read Article
RECIPE Study: Non-opioid Analgesics following Total Hip Arthroplasty
Patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty using a combination of paracetamol, ibuprofen, and dexamethasone, had optimal responses with the lowest morphine consumption, and fewer adverse events.
Read Article
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,
Read Article
Does Good Sleep Prevent Osteoporosis
EurekAlert!
As part of the University of Colorado Department of Medicine’s annual Research Day, held on April 23, faculty member Christine Swanson, MD, MCR, described her National Institutes of Health-funded clinical research on whether adequate sleep can help prevent osteoporosis.
“Osteoporosis
Read Article
Pharmacologic Efficacy in Still's Disease
A systematic review of the effectiveness and safety of pharmacological treatments for adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) supports the use of either IL-1 or IL-6 inhibitors.
A metanalysis was performed using databases, trial
Cutoffs for Systemic Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score
An international cohort of children with systemic Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (Still's disease) validated the systemic Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score 10 (sJADAS10), a disease activity measure distinguish patients with inactive disease, minimal disease activity, moderate disease
Read Article
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
Read Article
Imaging-Only Diagnosis of Giant Cell Arteritis Is Feasible
Medpage Today
Positive findings with color Doppler ultrasound were enough to diagnose giant cell arteritis (GCA) accurately without need for confirmation with temporal artery biopsy (TAB), a prospective study indicated.
Out of 165 older patients in whom GCA was strongly suspected, 73 (44%) had the
Read Article
Featured BSR Abstracts (5.2.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush muses on the news, journal reports, FDA announcements and the 2024 BSR abstracts just released.
Read Article
Lower Limb Muscle Mass Influences Osteoarthritis Risk
The Rotterdam study shows that weight-bearing recreational physical activity caused more incident knee osteoarthritis (KOA), but mainly when there was low muscle mass. KOA risk is traditionally linked to either obesity or injury. This study assesses whether muscle mass may influence
Read Article
Methotrexate Does Not Increase ILD Risk in Dermatomyositis
A cohort analysis of dermatomyositis (DM) patients starting immunomodulators finds that methotrexate use was not associated with an increased risk of interstitial lung disease (ILD).
ILD affects ~23% of DM patients and the oft used MTX is has a low risk of pneumonitis and pulmonary
Read Article
Systemic Inflammation and Mortality in RA-ILD
Analysis of the German RABBIT registry shows that systemic inflammation, more so than disease activity, strongly influences all-cause mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and prevalent interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).
RA-ILD patients from the biologics register Rheumatoid
Read Article
ARCTIC Rewind: Can You Taper DMARDs with Remission?
In an open-label, randomized, non-inferiority trial, rheumatoid arthritis patients in remission were subject to tapering of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and while maintenance of remission was seen in some, many DMARD tapering patients did flare and were unable to maintain
Read Article
TLR Antagonist in Lupus
Medpage Today
An investigational Toll-like receptor (TLR) antagonist was effective in reducing biomarkers and clinical symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a pilot trial, evidence that the innate immune system may hold the key to lupus pathophysiology.
Read Article
Rheum Chapter Notes (4.26.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week’s news and journal articles from RheumNow.com.
Read Article
Predicting Infection in Lupus Nephritis
Machine learning (ML) models were applied to 3 cohorts of lupus nephritis (LN) patients and established algorithms to predict co-infection in LN.
This study analyzed 111 non-infected LN patients, 72 infected LN patients, and 206 healthy controls (HCs), looking at patient
Read Article
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.
Read ArticleRecent Blogs
