The final day of EULAR 2024 was rich in posters, Late-breaking oral presentations and EULAR updates and recommendations.  Below is a synopsis of the half-day's action.

Glucocorticoids (GC) have been the mainstay of treatment in SLE for nearly three quarters of a century. GC induce a range of anti-inflammatory effects, quickly relieve some symptoms and lower mortality in some life-threatening flares. However, they also have multiple side effects that limit the duration of treatment, as well as the dose used. Accordingly, the 2023 EULAR recommendations for SLE set a target dose of ≤5mg/day. Is low dose GC an achievable target?

A clinical trial in early axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) demonstrated sustained inactive disease status in over 60% of patients.

There are a number of diseases where new biologic and targeted synthetic therapeutic options are coming online, and the temptation will be to consider them all equally. GCA is one of those diseases.

EULAR treats its attendees to a wonderful lunch each day – Schnitzel, gnocchi, goulash at lunch after muffins and coffee in the morning. It's no wonder the meeting has been a lively one, well attended with a wealth of stimulating ideas, research and discussion. Here are a few of my favorite abstracts and presentations from today, day 3 in Vienna.

The development of JAK inhibitors represents an advance for the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. However, the enthusiasm in using this target has waned since the publication of the ORAL surveillance clinical trial in 2022. Subsequently, both the FDA and EMA issued a warning on using JAKi in patients with certain risk factors, e.g., ≥65 years, at increased risk of MACE, current smoker or past smoker and at increased risk of cancer, should other alternative treatment be available. So, how has this warning impacted on JAKi development and use?