Medicare beneficiaries with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) incur frequent bone fractures, a new study indicated, with the risk boosted by some unsurprising factors but also including one that was not expected.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from RheumNow.com this past week.

The IL-23 inhibitor guselkumab was studied in active psoriatic arthritis patients in the phase 3b COSMOS trial, and shown to be clinically effective while reducing multiple effector cytokines, including those associated with the IL-23/IL-17 pathway.

Despite being in a state of remission or low disease activity state, in patients with axial spondyloarthritis, up to 42% may still have residual disease.

The safety of abatacept was studied using patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from 7 European registers, revealing safety signals on par with that previously reported with no new safety concerns. 

In 2023, three marketed biosimilars (Actemra, Stelara, Humira) had their patents expire, opening opportunities for multiple new biosimilars; but with competition comes a word salad of new drug names, confusion and nonsensical discounts.

A pooled analysis of 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) shows that the effects of 2 years of low-dose glucocorticoid (GC) treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can significantly increase increase body weight, but not blood pressure.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the wonderful wide world of Rheumatology. This week:

The COLCHICORT trial in patients with acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis (CPPD) demonstrated equivalent efficacy for both colchicine and prednisone, yet different safety signals were seen.

Most rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients 65 and older who had 5 mg/day of prednisolone added to standard care were successfully weaned from the steroid without seeing substantial increases in disease activity, researchers said.

The Cleveland Clinic Journal has published a full-read review of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition often seen in clinic with symptoms like fibromyalgia, but is clinically diagnosed with finding sustained tachycardia upon standing without orthostatic hypotension.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.  This week highlights Veterans, Vegetarians and Antenatal Corticosteroids.

A claims data study shows that maternal use of antenatal corticosteroids may be associated with an increased risk of serious infection in the offspring's first 12 months. 

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has been named the top hospital for rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report. This is the 6th year in a row they have held this spot.

A novel B-cell depletion trial, using obexelimab (a bifunctional, monoclonal antibody that binds CD19 and Fc gamma receptor IIb), has shown efficacy and safety in patients with active IgG4-related disease.

An open-label, uncontrolled pilot trial has shown that JAK signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of PMR and that tofacitinib is as effective as glucocorticoids (GC) in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR).

The Annals of Internal Medicine has published a predictive score to distinguish low-risk from high-risk inflammatory arthritis (IA) and who may benefit from risk stratification and preventive measures.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week COVID persists, mortality from misdiagnosis, and cervical pain is more than a pain in the neck.