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CDC Endorses New Shingles Vaccine Over Zostavax
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced on 25 October they endorsed the use of the new GSK shingles vaccine (Shingrix) over the currently available live-virus vaccine (Zostavax) from Merck.
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The RheumNow Week in Review - 27 October 2017
The RheumNow Week in Review discusses the past week's news, journal articles and highlights from RheumNow.com. In this week's report, Dr.
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The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part II
Wow! I hope you read part I of yesterday's “Greatest Rheumatologist” article. So many big names and yet, other names and stories that were equally inspirational.
If you read the comments of the part I article you can clearly see several themes emerge.
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RABBIT Risk Scores are Higher in ICU-Admitted RA Patients
The German Rheumatoid Arthritis Biologics Registry (RABBIT) has developed an infectious risk calculator that can project a patient's risk of serious infection in the next 6 months based on several key factors - age, Prior DMARDs, prednisone dose, comorbidities and the biologic intended for use.&n
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Does Birth Control or Breastfeeding Reduce RA Risk?
Researchers have reported their case-control study using the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of RA study (2641 cases/4251 controls) to examine the influence of oral contraceptive (OC) use or breastfeeding on the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
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The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part I
Who is the greatest rheumatologist? What makes for a great rheum? Is it clinical acumen, scientific achievement, educational prowess or years of unrivaled service or mentoring? Rheumatologists are quite opinionated on this subject and very nostalgic about their mentors and leaders. When I’ve posed this question in small groups, it’s plain to see how moved they become when discussing mentors or peers who influenced them. Thus, I posed this question to many of our leaders and mentors: who do you think of as the greatest rheumatologist?
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ICYMI: The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part I
Who is the greatest rheumatologist? What makes for a great rheum? Is it clinical acumen, scientific achievement, educational prowess or years of unrivaled service or mentoring? Rheumatologists are quite opinionated on this subject and very nostalgic about their mentors and leaders. When I’ve posed this question in small groups, it’s plain to see how moved they become when discussing mentors or peers who influenced them. Thus, I posed this question to many of our leaders and mentors: who do you think of as the greatest rheumatologist?
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Top 16 Drugs in Rheumatology 2016
Using data compiled from annual reports, SEC filings, press releases, company websites, recently released sales figures show that in 2016, 11 of the top 16 rheumatology drugs demonstrated blockbuster sales (>$1 billion per annum). Highlights from this report include:
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Biosimilars Projected to Yield $54 Billion in Savings
A primary projected advantage to biosimilar drugs development has been cost savings. A new study from the RAND Corporation suggests biosimilars could cut health care spending in the United States by $54 billion over the next decade. This number is nearly 20 percent greater than a similar study conducted three years ago by the same researchers.
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FDA Approves Simponi Aria for Psoriatic Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis
Janssen Biotech, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved SIMPONI ARIA® (golimumab) the treatment of adults with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) or active ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
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The RheumNow Week in Review - 20 October 2017
The RheumNow Week in Review discusses the past week's news, journal articles and highlights from RheumNow.com. In this week's report, Dr. Jack Cush discusses presentations from APLAR 2017 in Dubai, Catastrophic APS, safety of low-dose prednisone, frequency of psoriatic arthritis and a new drug for PsA and a hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego.
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Hepatitis A Outbreak in San Diego
On Sept. 1, 2017, the San Diego County declared a local public health emergency due to the ongoing hepatitis A outbreak in the county.
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Tofacitinib Scores in TNF inhibitor Resistant Psoriatic Arthritis
Mease et al has reported in the NEJM the results of a phase 3 trial showing tofacitinib (Tofa) to be significantly more effective than placebo in active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients who previously failed to respond to tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) therapies.
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Rheumatologists are Slow to Change DMARDs
The paradigm of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy mandates early diagnosis and aggressive treatment. Yet a recent cohort study has shown that RA patients with moderate to high disease activity (MHDAS) were met with infrequent DMARD adjustments; with median time to DMARD adjustment being 5 months and median time to low disease activity (LDAS) was roughly 10 months.
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Gout Increases Risk of Stroke Moreso than MI
Gout coassociates with many of the disorders within the metabolic syndrome - diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and obesity. Not surprisingly, gout is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but the risk magnitude for myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke are unclear.
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Stelara FDA Approved for Use in Adolescent Psoriasis
Johnson & Johnson has announced that they have received an expanded FDA approval for the use of ustekinumab (Stelara) in treating adolescent patients, aged 12 and over, with moderate to severe plaque psoriais.
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High Drug Discontinuations and Nonadherence in Fibromyalgia
Compliance and adherence was shown to be quite poor in fibromyalgia (FM) patients, with high rates of drug discontinuation and greater than 60% demonstrated low adherence.
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Spinal X-ray Inhibition in Ankylosing Spondylitis Best Achieved by Control of Activity
Although tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) are highly effective (on clinical grounds) in ankylosing spondylitis (AS), proof that they may alter the course of spinal radiographic progression has been scant.
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13 October 2017 The RheumNow Week in Review
The RheumNow Week in Review discusses the past week's news, journal articles and highlights from RheumNow.com. In this week's report, Dr. Jack Cush discusses a novel antiviral drug or the use of stem cell therapy for scleroderma, rituximab in HSP, when to withdraw NSAIDS in RA, and congrats to PAs and NPs!
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The Big Need - NPs and PAs
Despite being one of the most satisfying of medical subspecialties, the number of U.S. rheumatologists is about to sharply decline. These data were presented at the 2016 ACR meeting, where it was shown that the estimated total number of U.S.
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