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Bisphosphonate Use Associated with Reduced Mortality

d Jack Cush, MD

The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR) has published a report showing that a reduction in the rate of bone loss by nitrogen bisphosphonates was associated with a 40% lower mortality risk.

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War on RA – Part 4: Desperado – Time to Open the Gate

d Jack Cush, MD

Do you know what the best-selling album of all time is? Could it be Bing Crosby? U2? Fleetwood Mac? AC/DC? I know, it’s Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” right?

Actually it’s the Eagles Greatest Hits – it surpassed Jackson’s Thriller in August 2019 as the best-selling with a total of 36 million copies sold since it was released in 1976. Wait! Are we not Rheumatologists? Aren’t we supposed to be discussing rheumatoid arthritis?

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Enbrel Patent Battle Won by Amgen

d Jack Cush, MD

The ugly, legal, financial underbelly of US biosimilar drug development showed up in court last Friday, when a U.S. judge upheld two of Amgen's patents for Enbrel, thwarting a legal challenge by Novartis/Sandoz over its etanercept-szzs biosimilar, Erelzi. 

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RA Disease Activity Drives Lung Complications

d Jack Cush, MD

A longitudinal study from the BRASS registry shows that increase rheumatoid arthritis disease activity increases the risk of RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).

RA patients without RA-ILD at baseline, enrolled in the Brigham RA Sequential Study (BRASS, 2003–2016), were followed from 2003-2016 with serial clinical, DAS28, serologic and imaging assessments.

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NSAIDs Mediate Cardiovascular Risk in OA

d Jack Cush, MD

NSAIDs have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but does this also hold for osteoarthritis (OA) patients.

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RheumNow Podcast – Tricked Up Lupus Criteria (8.9.19)

d Jack Cush, MD

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com, including new SLE criteria, ULT in gout and MSU reductions, IVIG in ANCA vasculitis and non-TNF biologics outperform the TNF inhibitors.

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"WAR on RA - Part 4: Desperado" is featured on RheumNow. Why the Eagles and Glenn Fry's death should inspire us to better, greater, more and other superlatives in RA. https://t.co/dgShcQpWHP

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

In GCA/Temporal arteritis, when do you start a DMARD/Biologic?

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Osteoarthritis Iniative study of 3053 #OA pts shows worsening in health related quality of life is most rapid with Female gender, higher BMI, smoking, knee pain, and lower income at baseline. Rapid progressors had higher risk of TKR (HR 6.2;CI 3.6–10.7) https://t.co/73OlM7ymH6

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Case-control study using the UK Clinical Practice Research database examined 22677 RA pts. 1995–2017) exposed to antibiotics vs ~90K controls shows the risk of RA is 60% higher if Abx exposed (OR 1.60; 95% CI 1.51–1.68) - microbiome changes? https://t.co/ysfEXnRU3c

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Nearly 30% of presurgical OA (Spine> Hip &Knee) used prescription opioids. Opioid use was greater w/ spine OA (vs knee), obesity, smokers, depression, greater pain, higher TJC, & concurrent use of other pain meds https://t.co/ns6JBB7BXU

Links:

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

In GCA/Temporal arteritis, when do you start a DMARD/Biologic?

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

"WAR on RA - Part 3: Useless Drugs". Old DMARDs were truly useless (gold, PCM, SSZ, HCQ) but are biologics, combinations, JAKs the answer? Watch here>> https://t.co/5wLDOnXJ1S or Listen on iTunes or SoundCloud https://t.co/SfPQ1sSXgi

Links:

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Osteoarthritis Iniative study of 3053 #OA pts shows worsening in health related quality of life is most rapid with Female gender, higher BMI, smoking, knee pain, and lower income at baseline. Rapid progressors had higher risk of TKR (HR 6.2;CI 3.6–10.7) https://t.co/73OlM7ymH6

Links:

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

The RheumNow Podcast is up! "Tricked Up Lupus Criteria" and more on gout & ULT, IVIG in ANCA vasculitis, NO SIE risk w/ TNFi, and the Best 1st Biologic. Watch the video here>> https://t.co/j1Axn36hL0 or listen to the Podcast on iTUNEs or SoundCloud here>> https://t.co/rjAQmxHce6

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Amgen wins U.S. patent battle against Novartis over Enbrel patents, delaying Novartis' attempts to launch its etanercept biosimilar Erelzi until (possibly) 2029. Novartis intends to appeal. https://t.co/uoEQJJUf9A

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Medicare (CMS) has made a decision to cover expensive cancer cell therapies - especially CAR-T therapy - costs re $373,000 for a one-time treatment before hospital costs. https://t.co/M4tkuVt3Gm

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Check out the "WAR on RA - Part 3: Useless Drugs". We use to have useless drugs (gold, PCM, SSZ, HCQ) but now live in an era of biologics, combinations, JAKs - are these the answer? Watch here>> https://t.co/5wLDOofjTq or Listen on iTunes or SoundCloud https://t.co/SfPQ1sBlRI

Links:

Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

IL-16 studied in Scleroderma: incr perivasc IL-16 lymphocyte expression w/ more IL-16+ cells in dcSSc vs lcSSc (44 vs 29%, P<0.05). Serum IL-16 levels elevated in SSc pts (297 vs 195 pg/ml) & IL-16 correlated w/ dcSSc, skin score, erythema & pigmentation. https://t.co/lC4nRO6AH0

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

Metanalysis of Early #RA therapy (22 RCTs, 9934 pts), shows that MTX + TNF or non-TNF biologics reduces disease activity and improves remission when compared with MTX monotherapy. 20-57% higher ACR50 rates with Combination Rx https://t.co/iJKmK6uVgg

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Dr. John Cush RheumNow ( View Tweet)

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