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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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Statin Side Effects Are For Real
The GAUSS-3 trial, recently published in JAMA, examined cholesterol-lowering interventions in patients with a high LDL (>120 mg/dl) and a history of statin intolerance to 2 or more statins.
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Intraarticular Wnt Inhibitor Therapy Effective in Knee Osteoarthritis
At the 2016 World Congress on Osteoarthritis (OARSI) meeting last week, first line results of a novel intraarticular inhibitor of the Wnt pathway (SM04690) in knee osteoarthritis were presented.
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Choosing ANA Tests Wisely - Education Fosters Smarter Use
It is estimated that 21% of laboratory tests are requested inappropriately. Researchers have explored the impact of educational programs for rheumatologists working at three rheumatology departments in secondary and tertiary care centers in The Netherlands.
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Tofacitinib Efficacy Revealed in OPAL Study
Pfizer has issued a press release of its preliminary results from the OPAL study that examined the efficacy and safety of tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily (BID) in adults active psoriatic arthritis (PsA).
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FDA Biosimilar Approval of Inflectra Viewed as a Milestone Advance
On February 9th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Arthritis Advisory Committee voted 21-3 in favor of approving the infliximab biosimilar, CT-P13/Inflectra, for use in all of infliximab's indications.
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Cardiology Anti-inflammatory Trial Fails to Improve CV Outcomes
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston evaluated the efficacy and safety of the anti-inflammatory drug losmapimod on cardiovascular outcomes given to patients with a history of myocardial infarction and CV risk factors.
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