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Vaccine Success is Limited in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Numerous guidelines (ACR, ACIP/CDC, ATS, NICE) all call for timely vaccinations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and those receiving immunosuppressives or biologics.
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α Defensin Control of Inflammation
Alpha defensins are released following apoptosis, necrosis, or netosis of human neutrophils. They are taken up by other cells and microbes, wherein they permeablize membranes and kill microbes and host cells. Thus, they augment the antimicrobial capacity of macrophages and at the same time inhibit the biosynthesis of proinflammatory cytokines.
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Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy in Lupus
Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a rare neurological disorder with many associations or causative factors that rarely includes autoimmune disorders and lupus.
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FDA Will Review Opioid Analgesic Use and REMS Programs for Pediatric Pain Patients
Amidst a stringent regulatory environment, and with the rising use and abuse of narcotics and increasing regulation limiting narcotic analgesic use, the FDA approved (August 2015) the use of extended-release oxycodone in children (11 to 16 years old) with severe, "around-the-clock" pain
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BeST Trial and 10-Year Outcomes of Four Treatment Strategies
Markusse and investigators from The Netherlands have reported their 10 year results of treating early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients using targeted treatment strategies.
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Osteoporotic Fractures at Higher Risk for Subsequent Fractures
Harvey and coworkers reported the results of subjects followed in the Reykjavik study, demonstrating that a first osteoporotic fracture was followed by an increased risk for a second fracture, both immediately and over time.
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HLA-B*5801 Testing Needed in Asians and Blacks with Gout
Choi and colleagues analyzed US hospitalizations (2009–2013) to assess the frequency and racial distribution of patients hospitalized with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) related to the use of urate-lowering (ULT) therapy (predominantly allopurinol).
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Does Psoriasis Increase Risk of Abdominal Aneurysm?
Danish researchers studied a cohort of 59,423 mild psoriasis and 11,566 severe psoriasis patients over a 14 year period, and found 240 and 50 cases of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), repectively. (Citation source http://buff.ly/1YxGpDA)
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CV Events Strike Early in Lupus
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are at risk of cardiovascular events early in the course of disease -- and even before their lupus is diagnosed, an international study found.
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RheumNow Week in Review - 15 April 2016
Video recap of highlights from this week at RheumNow.com.
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Surgical Management of Spinal Stenosis - To Fuse or Not To Fuse?
Three articles (2 studies, 1 commentary) in this week's issue of NEJM tackle the issue of whether fusion adds anything to long-term outcomes in those undergoing decompression for lumbar spinal fusion.
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Biosimilar Reports - April 2016
Major advances in biosimilars have occurred in the last three months, beginning with the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee voting 21-3 to approve Celltrion’s Inflectra (CT-P13) and ending with the recent approval of Inflectra (generically referred to as infliximab dyyb).
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Lupus Patients Genomically Stratified to Explain Treatment Responses
Systemic lupus is a clinically heterogeneous disorder, unified by requisite clinical features and exuberant humoral response to unknown triggers. While the diagnosis is easy, the disease course and management can be complicated and challenging.
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Could Rheumatoid Synovium Be a Nursery for ACPA Producing Plasma Cells ?
One of the hallmarks of aggressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is presence of antibodies against citrullinated protein antigens (ACPA).
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Population-Based TB Risk and Prevention with RA and Biologics
In a retrospective cohort comparison study, 42,180 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients were compared 1:4 with 168,000 normal controls to examine the incidence of new tuberculosis in Taiwan. The RA population included those receiving csDMARDs (36,162), etanercept (3,577), adalimumab (1,67
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A Rocky Start for Biosimilar Inflectra?
This week, when the FDA approved the biosimilar drug Inflectra as an alternative to infliximab (Remicade), it was only the second biosimilar to be granted approval in the United States, and was the fi
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Methotrexate Toxicity Quantified
Methotrexate (MTX) is a highly favored drug in rheumatology. Yet it has numerous nuisance side effects that may limit its use or patient acceptance.
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March 2016 Top Social Media News
In March 2016, RheumNow published 82 social media “tweets” regarding news, research and teaching points that impact the rheumatology community. These feeds had a reach (impressions) of 86,400 with, 76 mentions, and over 2700 visits to learn on RheumNow.com.
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RheumNow Week in Review - 8 April 2016
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the rheumatology highlights from the news, media, and journals from this past week:
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Altering the Microbiome May Benefit Lupus Patients
Lopez and colleagues from Spain have studied the gut microbiome of l
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