A minority of immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) patients treated with rituximab (RTX) are expected to develop and depressed immunoglobulin (Ig) levels.  A recent cohort analysis suggests that RTX-induced Ig deficiency was not associated with an increased risk of severe infecti

Dr. Jack Cush has advice for Caesar and the superstitious, and covers pregnancy, platelets, dialysis and vaccinations in Lupus.

A trend analysis of DMARDs shows that only half of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are taking DMARDs, and that the COVID-19 pandemic substantially affected DMARD use. Despite numerous DMARD advances and evolving treatment guidelines since 1990, older therapies are still commonly used and the latest agents make up a small percentage of overall DMARD use.

Medscape has published an informative review of leflunomide, drawn from Dr. Eric Ruderman’s recent lecture on the subject at the February RWCS meeting in Maui.

JAMA has reviewed the "2022 EULAR Recommendations for the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis With Synthetic and Biological Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs". 

A systematic review of pharmacological treatments for adult-onset Still disease (AOSD) supports the efficacy of tocilizumab (TCZ), anakinra (ANK), and canakinumab (CNK).

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and regulatory approvals from the past week.

In patients with clinically stable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis, the withdrawal of mycophenolate mofetil was not significantly inferior to mycophenolate maintenance, but MMF withdrawal had numerically more reactivations, while MMF maintenance had more infections.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Are these associations with infection, biomarkers and weather real or imaginary? Linked or luck? Causal or casual?  You decide....