Anxiety and Depression are Common in Arthritis Patients

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The high prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among adults with arthritis warrants awareness, screening, and subsequent treatment of these conditions.

RheumNow Week in Review – Vitamin D Falls Again (10.4.18)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news from the past week on RheumNow.com. 

Vitamin D Fails to Improve Bone Health

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The current edition of Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests that neither vitamin D supplementation, nor dose, will improve bone density or prevent fractures in adults.

Activity Trackers May be Helpful in Arthritis Patients

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Use of wearable activity trackers was associated with increases in the number of daily steps among individuals with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders, a meta-analysis found.

Predictive Risk Factors for Uveitis in JIA

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Researchers from Germany have studied a large cohort of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients and shown that JIA disease activity scores and laboratory biomarkers could be used to better define the group of JIA patients at high risk of uveitis onset.

Zolendronic Acid Benefits Elder Women with Osteopenia

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The NEJM reports that zolendronic acid was shown to significantly lower the risk of nonvertebral or vertebral fragility fractures in older women with osteopenia. 

Excess Mortality in CTD or Systemic Vasculitis Patients

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The Norwegian connective tissue disease (CTD) and systemic vasculitis (PSV) registry (NOSVAR) studied patient outcomes over a 15 year period and found overall mortality to be higher in the CTD compared to the PSV group.

Elder Rheumatoids Less Likely to Receive Biologics

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Multiple studies have shown that elderly rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients tend to be under-treated and receive DMARD therapies less often than younger RA patients.

Does Gender Make a Difference in Axial Spondyloarthritis

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Males and females can both be affected by axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). A recent study shows that while there are some differences and similarities, HLA-B27 and imaging are still pivotal elements for diagnosis of axSpA in both genders.

Long-Term Efficacy of Canakinumab in Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

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Only inhibitors of IL-1 (canakinumab) and IL-6 (tocilizumab) are FDA approved for use in children with systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA). Now, long-term data from the extension studies from two phase III studies shows that canakinumab yields long-term improvements with reduced glucocorticoid dosing with no new safety findings with long-term use.

Defining Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Researchers from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics (BSRBR) set out to define under what circumstances will rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients manifest biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) refractory disease.

Neuropathic Like Knee Pain

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Fernandez and colleagues have shed further light on a significant subset of patients with knee pain - specifically, those with neuropathic like knee pain (NKP) that includes those with knee pain modified by central and peripheral neurologic dysfunction.

RheumNow Week in Review – I Wanna New Drug (9.28.18)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news from the past week on RheumNow.com, including news on inappropriate opioids, pre-clinical RA treatment, DMARDs in Gout, the decline of arthroscopy, and a pain in the mouth.

Venous Thromboembolism Increased with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Not with TNF Inhibition

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Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common adverse event throughout medicine and includes both pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT).   The cost of diagnosing a thromboembolic event is approximately $4000 - $5550, while the annual cost of treating one case of VTE is betwe

CDC: 2017 Record Number of Influenza Deaths

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The CDC reports that in 2017, influenza killed and hospitalized more people in the United States than any other year in the last few decades.

What Works in Undifferentiated Arthritis Patients

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Complementary Therapies in Psoriasis

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A systematic review in Archives of Dermatology suggests that among complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies, the most effective are indigo naturalis, curcumin, dietary modification, meditation, and acupuncture.

Knee Arthroscopic Surgeries on the Decline

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A JAMA Internal Medicine report has shown that the rate of arthroscopic surgery has significantly declined, in an era when arthroplasty and the incidence of osteoarthritis (OA) has increased.

Fractures May Lead to Systemic Bone Loss

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Researchers at the University of California - Davis have shown that elderly women who had an upper body fracture or multiple fractures had more loss of hip density compared to those who who did not fracture. Systemic bone loss may increase the risk of future fractures.