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Glucorticoid Toxicity Index
Dr. John Stone has led the effort to develop the GTI - glucocorticoid toxicity index. In this review article he acknowledges the need and benefit of steroids, but details a novel means to identify and limit the untoward effects of glucorticoids (GC).
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2024 Rheumatology Year in Review
2024 was a year of surprising new growth in technology, with the expansion of new therapeutic options for many patients and clinicians. While these many advances offer new hope, they are countered by disappointments and gapping unmet needs in rheumatology. Below is my top 10 list (in no particular order) of 2024 developments and desires that may change rheumatologic practices.
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Cardiovascular and Fracture Risk with Denosumab Versus Bisphosphonates in Dialysis Patients
Annals of Internal Medicine has published a Japanese administrative claims database study showing that, compared with oral bisphosphonates (BIS), denosumab (DEN) lowered fracture risk by 45%, but increased the risk for major adverse cardia
Increased Mortality In Arthritis Patients with COPD
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EurekAlert!
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and arthritis have a higher risk of death than people with arthritis who do not have COPD, according to a new study.
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Are Combination Biologics Safe?
Although package inserts commonly warn against combining the use of biologic or targeted therapies, there is growing interest in such combination therapy for patients with problematic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID).
Your patients with RA deserve the opportunity to achieve disease control.
Listen as Dr. Christina Charles-Schoeman and Dr. Manish Jain discuss their approach to disease control after TNFi failure. Sponsored by AbbVie Medical Affairs + Health Impact.
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A Veterans study of 27,540 #RA pts shows the risk of multiple myeloma (MM) did not differ b/tsDMARD & csDMARD users. 30% took b/tsDMARD during follow-up (192,000 PYs). MM incidence rate: b/tsDMARD-naïve 0.37/1000PYs vs csDMARDs 0.42/1000PYs (HR 1.32; 0.78, 2.26)… https://t.co/Xp4v4eIQnd https://t.co/5MVdz5UQSb
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Long-Term Use of NSAIDs Linked to Lower Dementia Risk
https://t.co/nlo2BodhLG https://t.co/TiE34zyvts
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Are Combination Biologics Safe?
Real-life data from a French observational study suggests the overall risk of severe adverse events (SAE) with combotherapy does not seem to be increased (vs monotherapy), but certain combinations warrant caution.
https://t.co/IEIi6kQI4b https://t.co/KVSbqeMbyA
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A Case of IgA Vasculitis Presenting as Duodenal Perforation
Presentation by Dr. Audrey Liu, at the Rheumatology Winter Clinical Symposia - Feb 2025
https://t.co/kZWgy1S0Wh https://t.co/9mJAzVRVpl
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Hydroxychloro-King (3.7.2025)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and regulatory actions from the past week on RheumNow.
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Late Breaking abstract from 2025 Amer. Acad. Dermatology (AAD) on the Phase 3 ICONIC-LEAD study showed J&J's oral IL-23 inhibitor (icotrokinra) was superior to deucravacitinib in skin clearance (65% vs 8%) & PASI90 (50% v 4%) at Wk 15 in 684 moderate-to-severe plaque PsO pts… https://t.co/GYK604kJ9u https://t.co/Ao1BpL1Qxt
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The European Commission (EC) has approved Celltrion’s Avtozma (CT-P47), a biosimilar referencing Roche’s RoActemra (tocilizumab). https://t.co/ukMDwtgUhw https://t.co/htDVWKbu3n
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Congratulations to Dr. Mehmet Hocaoglu (University of Pittsburgh) on being awarded a 2024 Rheumatoid Arthritis Research Program grant to investigate the unique and shared risk factors between patients with preclinical rheumatoid arthritis and patients with RA.… https://t.co/eF4yb3Hxsj https://t.co/MLNWKFiCiU
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Meta-analysis shows the combination therapy bDMARD with MTX in #PsA pts yields better bDMARDs drug survival, especially with TNFi. 20 observational studies, 30,634 PsA pts. Insufficient data for non-TNFi bDMARDs. But adding MTX to bDMARDs had better TNFi survival (HR=0.79… https://t.co/3Y2cOzt3TQ https://t.co/6f8yiwMqAa
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Metanalysis of cancer risk w/ abatacept vs placebo or TNFi in #RA. (18 RCTs, 10 LTE, 15 535 PYs ABA exposure) show no signif increase in malignancy for ABA vs PBO (IRR 0.58) or TNFi (IRR 0.72). Observational data ABA > other b/tsDMARDs (IRR 1.21; 1.15–1.28), but not csDMARDs… https://t.co/2aBfwyKv0e https://t.co/zUmaHZN3mR
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DANBIO registry study - 21 982 Rx Starts, 96 475 PYs & 1423 cancers identified. Overall cancer risk w/in tocilizumab/sarilumab, abatacept or rituximab were not signif increased (HRs ranged from 0.7 to 1.1) compared with TNFi & with bDMARD-naïve real world RA pts… https://t.co/fPLFlWoQsw https://t.co/4KlGnjfNKm
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Global burden of #OA among postmenopausal women continues to escalate. From1990 to 2021, was > 1.3-fold increases in OA incidence, prevalence, DALYs. Knee OA has heaviest burden; hip OA least. Higher BMI signif influences the burden of OA https://t.co/L6qd7ISFF8 https://t.co/1SkNJWxm54
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BMS announced new data from Phase 3 POETYK PsA-2 trial - Sotyktu (deucravacitinib)vs apremilast vs PBO in PsA w/ higher ACR20 vs PBO at Week 16 (54% vs 39%). AEs led to discontinuation in 1.3% (PBO), 2.2% (Deuc) and 10.5% (apremilast). https://t.co/NAa2JigkZN https://t.co/mvaQXfjShd
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Polypharmacy (>=5Rx) studied in 81 RA & 30 SLE pts. Polypharmacy incr at 2 yrs ~44% to ~73%. Med adherence >85%. Polypharmacy NOT assoc w/ Dz activity in SLE, but in RA did correlate w/ better DAS28CRP score at one year https://t.co/Jw05DIrBym https://t.co/pLIoDvPj8i
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