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The RheumNow Week in Review – Modifiable Behavior (5.18.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com. He discusses opioids, new approval for polyarticular JIA, running and osteoarthritis, and modifiable behaviors that influence outcomes.
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Treat-to-Target a Bust with Rheumatologists
Treat-to-target strategy is widely advocated as an important means of optimizing treatment responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Even though T2T is encouraged by most guidelines, a current report shows that US Rheumatologists fail to implement T2T in their daily practice.
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Trends in Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment 2004-2015
Lee and colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital have analyzed the last decade of disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) use in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and found nearly 40% were treated with a bDMARD, along with a decreasing trend in complete DMARD discontinuations.
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The Hazardous Highs and Lows of Uric Acid
Both high and low levels of uric acid were linked with increased risks of death, showing a U-shaped association between serum uric acid levels and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality, Korean researchers reported.
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Opioid Marketing & Meals Tied to Opioid Prescribing
A current study in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that while US physicians who received no opioid-related marketing payments had fewer opioid prescriptions in 2015 compared with 2014, those receiving such payments wrote for more opioid in 2015.
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Epigenetic Link in Rheumatoid Arthritis to Huntington's Disease
Researchers at University of California San Diego School and the Icahn School of Medicine have found a high-resolution epigenomic landscape of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) that overlaps with that seen in Huntington's disease, suggesting potentially new unanticipated pathways that could be devel
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Ankylosing Spondylitis Women Show Less Durable Responses to TNF Inhibitors
A study from the Netherlands has shown that the long-term drug survival of TNF inhibitors differ between men and women, with women having a lower long-term retention rate compared to men. A single-center, retrospective study of 122 anklylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, analyzed the outcomes of those receiving either etanercept, adalimumab, or infliximab between 2004 and 2014.
Nearly 40% were women and most AS patients received adalimumab (59.7%), compared to etanercept (28.9%) or infliximab (11.3%).
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Mortality Predictors in Rheumatoid Arthritis
A population based study from southern Denmark finds excess mortality RF-positive males with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and that employment status and comorbidity were independent predictors of mortality.
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Trump Blasts Drug Makers on the Price of Drugs
Reuter's reports Friday that President Donald Trump blasted drugmakers and healthcare “middlemen” for making prescription drugs unaffordable for Americans.
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The RheumNow Week in Review - Nonadherence and Astronomic Costs (5.11.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights, news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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New EULAR Pain Guidelines
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) convened a multidisciplinary task force including health professionals and patient representatives to develop evidence-based recommendations for pain management in patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) and osteoarthritis (OA).
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Elderly Often Untested for Sleep Apnea
Geriatric patients are at a higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), yet they are seldom diiagnosed or evaluated for OSA.
A recent study shows that 56% of people 65 years and older have a high risk of OSA, but that only 8% were tested for OSA.
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Tocilizumab Beats Anti-TNFs for Treatment Retention
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had previously had an inadequate response to one biologic agent remained on tocilizumab (Actemra) longer than on a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor, whether or not conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) were given concomitantl
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Patients May Not Fill Your Prescription
A new study linking administrative claims and electronic health records (EHRs) shows that nearly 40% of patients fill and take newly prescribed methotrexate (MTX), tofacitinib or biologics.
Kan et al set out to estimate the extent and predictors of primary nonadherence in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who received new prescriptions for methotrexate, biologics or tofacitinib.
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60 Minutes Drills Acthar - A Financially Crippling Drug
Acthar is in the news again. Previously a New York Times article lambasted the drug as the "single most expensive drug per patient", based on it costing Medicare $16,2371 per patient for nearly 3100 patients. Overall, costing Medicare a half-billion US dollars per year.
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Severity of Lupus Nephritis is Declining over Time
A retrospective follow-up study of 499 lupus nephritis (LN) patients over three successive eras shows that LN has become less severe in recent years and thus, better long-term survival is possible.
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Mortality Risks Shift in Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis
Mortality remains high in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), but the causes of death tend to change over time, a researcher reported here.
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Rising Need for Weight Loss Counseling in Arthritic Patients
The CDC's May 4th MMWR reports that from 2002 to 2014, the prevalence of health care provider counseling for weight loss among adults with arthritis and overweight or obesity increased by 10% (from 35% to 45%).
Among the 54.4 million adults with doctor-diagnosed arthritis in the United States, 32.7% are overweight and 38.1% are obese. Moreover obesity is more prevalent among persons with arthritis than among those who do not have arthritis.
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Bisphosphonate Drug Holidays May Result in Fractures
A report in Endocrine Practice shows that drug holidays from bisphosphonates results in a 15% risk of fractures. (Citation source:
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The RheumNow Week in Review – Why Comorbidity is Like the Weather (5.3.18)
Dr. Jack Cush discusses the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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