All News
Negotiation Skills for Rheumatologists
Physicians as a group are trained to have excellent clinical skills, but the difference between an average and extremely successful physician often comes down to factors outside of their ability to provide clinical care.
Read Article
Quarterly Canakinumab Reduces Gout Risk Without Affecting Uric Acid
The Annals of Internal Medicine reports that interleukin-1 (IL-1) inhibitor treatment is associated with a reduced risk of gout attacks - such are the findings of an anlysis of the CANTOS study previously reported at the Annual ACR 2017 meeting in Washington, DC.
Read Article
New Classification of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies
Using an observational cohort analysis of patients in the French myositis network, researchers have proposed a new classification of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) with four subgroups: dermatomyositis, inclusion body myositis, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, and antisynthetas
Read Article
Biologic Therapies Improve Work Outcomes in Spondyloarthritis
A study from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Axial Spondyloarthritis (BSRBR-AS) shows that biologic use significantly improves work productivity and overall activity impairment.
Read Article
RheumNow Week in Review – Gout and Hearing Loss, Huh? (9.14.18)
Dr. Jack Cush's weekly review of the news on RheumNow.com.
Read Article
Lower Income Elderly are More Likely to Use Opioids
The Journal of Gerontology reports that the poorest of the elderly are the most likely to receive prescription opioids.
Read Article
Depression Increases Risk of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Twenty-year data from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) suggests that depression is associated with a 2-fold increased frequency of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) - the question is why?
Read Article
BMS Tyk 2 Inhibitor Benefits Psoriasis
The NEJM reports that an oral selecive Tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor of TYK2 was shown to be superior to placebo in a 12 week trial in patients with active psoriasis.
Read Article
Mediterranean Diet Reduces Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis
High adherence to a Mediterranean diet appears to be associated with a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), especially in men and those who are seropositive, according to a study published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.
Read Article
Out of Pocket Costs for Biosimilars - No Savings So Far
JAMA has published an analysis showing that under Medicare Part D, RA biosimilar infliximab-dyyb was only moderately less expensive (18% less) than the biologic infliximab and, owing to differences in gap discounts, the out of pocket costs for the biosimilar was nearly $1700 more than infliximab
Read Article
Cutting Oral JAK 1/2 Inhibitor Dose an Option in RA
Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who achieved sustained disease control with baricitinib (Olumiant) treatment were able to reduce their daily dose from 4 mg to 2 mg and maintain their response, a double-blind substudy of a long-term extension trial found.
Read Article
Physician Burnout May Jeopardize Patient Safety
A metanalysis of studies and over 42,000 physician shows that MD burnout is associated with 2-fold increased in unsafe care, unprofessional behaviors, and low patient satisfaction.
The primary outcomes were the quantitative associations between burnout and patient safety, professionalism, and patient satisfaction.
Interferon Blocker Disappoints in SLE
Yet another setback has occurred in the efforts to develop new medications for treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as anifrolumab failed to meet the primary endpoint in a phase III trial, according to AstraZeneca and MedImmune.
Read Article
RheumNow Week in Review – Medical School Advice (9.7.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
Read Article
Osteoarthritis and the Risk of Mortality
Osteoarthritis (OA) affects 27 million Americans but its affect on mortality is uncertain. A recent study shows that while self-reported OA does not increase mortality, radiographic OA of the knee (RKOA) is associated with higher mortality related to CVD, diabetes and renal disease.
Read Article
ACR Releases State-by-State Rheumatic Disease Report Card
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today released the Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America, a first-of-its-kind report that evaluates just how difficult it can be to live well with a rheumatic disease in the United States.
Read Article
Methotrexate's Low Efficacy in Cutaneous Psoriasis
In a prospective, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled study, Warren et al. studied the effect of an intensified methotrexate (MTX) in chronic plaque psoriasis and showed MTX to be effective and superior to placebo.
Read Article
Usual Allopurinol Doses Insufficient in CKD Patients
Uric acid (sUA) control may be a challenge in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). A cohort study shows that conventional dosing recommendations for allopurinol are unlikely to reach target serum sUA goals.
Read Article
CRA Recommendations for Lupus Assessment and Monitoring
A Canadian Rheumatology Association SLE Working Group was established to develop recommendations for the assessment of people with systemic lupus erythematosus.
A panel that included 23 adult rheumatologists, 4 pediatric rheumatologists, 1 immunologist, 4 general internal medicine and rheumatology trainees, and a patient representative, used GRADE methodology to assess the literature and develop guidelines.
Tocilizumab Equals other Biologics in Cardiovascular Risk
An odd side effect of several new agents is the risk of hyperlipidemia. While this has been seen with tocilizumab (TCZ), there does not appear to be a resultant risk of cardiovascular (CV) events. A study of claims data compared CV risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients receiving TOC (an IL6 receptor antagonists) and other biologics and found no differences with regard to CV outcomes.
Read Article