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Not All Placebos are Equal: The Needle is Mightier than the Pill
Placebos are necessary to determine the “true effect” of any medical intervention. As such, they have become the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine, randomized controlled clinical trials and novel drug development.
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2015 Guidelines for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing form of interstitial pneumonia, with poor survival rates of nearly 50% at 3 years.
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Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Have an Increased Risk of Gout
The frequency of gout among patients with psoriatic disease was studied in two cohorts of 98,810 patients from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2010) and the Nurses' Health Study (1998-2010).
Read ArticleWhat's Your Diagnosis? Truncal Rash, Arthritis and +ANA
An 80 year old woman complains of 3 months of rash on her back. It is modestly pruritic. The lesions are both annular and papular appearing over her back, torso and upper arms. She also complains of pain and swelling in her fingers.
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Tacrolimus Tops Other DMARDs as Induction Therapy for Lupus Nephritis
Metanalysis of nine clinical trials and 972 lupus patients examined the comparative efficacy of tacrolimus, mycophenolate (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) as induction therapy for lupus nephritis.
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Outcry Over the Cost of Drugs
Several news articles have addressed the rising concern by patients and physicians over the cost of newer drugs. This issue comes to a head as more than 100 oncologists from top cancer hospitals around the U.S.
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Long term Denosumab Use Shows Favorable Outcomes: Results from the FREEDOM Extension Trial
Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by increased bone loss that outpaces the grown of new bone. As a result bones become less dense and more fragile and brittle; porous bones are more prone to fracture.
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DSB: Drug Shortages July 2015
Several drugs continue to be in short supply, posing significant problems for patients. Foremost on this list is leflunomide (Arava) which is backordered for both 10 mg and 20 mg tablets.
Leflunomide Shortage
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Allopurinol Risky in Asian Population
The go-to drug to treat hyperuricemia and gout, allopurinol, put patients at risk for developing hypersensitivity when American College of Rheumatology guidelines weren't followed, a large database study found.
Read ArticleRituximab Induced Serum Sickness
Karmacharya and colleages have reviewed 33 cases of rituximab-induced serum sickness. Half of these patients had the classic triad of SS fever, rash, and arthralgia and a self-limiting course. The time to onset after infusion was greater with the first dose of rituximab c
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Residents Satisfied and Optimistic
Recently released 2015 Medscape resident salary & debt report shows that most medical residents are satisfied with their compensation, professional relationships, and career choices.
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Increasing Age May Increase Miscarriage Risk in RA
At EULAR 2015, Brouwer and colleagues reported on their cohort of 162 evaluable pregnancies in 239 Dutch women enrolled during 2002-2010 in the nationwide Pregnancy-Induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis (PARA) study – a large prospective cohort of pregnant RA patients.
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Women Paid Less as Consultants to Pharma... Again?
Historically, women’s salaries have lagged behind their male colleagues. Women are less likely to achieve leadership roles or be full professors at academic institutions.
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Does Antibiotic Exposure Increase the Risk of JIA?
According to the CDC, between 4300 and 9700 children under the age of 16 are diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis each year - the cause of which is unknown.
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IL-1 Inhibition May Be an Alternative Treatment for Behcet's
Behcet's disease is difficult to manage, especially if the goal is to avoid corticosteroids.
Read ArticleAlpha-1-Anti-Trypsin-Fc Fusion Protein Ameliorates Gouty Arthritis
Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis affecting adults and, probably, one of the most underestimated.
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Lithium May Have Chondroprotective Effects in OA
Several studies have suggested that lithium chloride exhibits significant chondroprotective effects on cartilage degradation (in animal models) in response to inflammatory cytokines.
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The Spread of Lyme Disease in the US
It is estimated that Lyme disease affects nearly 30,000 per year in the USA. While it is is still a disorder of the Northeast and upper Midwest, there are more areas also considered to be high risk.
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Intracranial Hemorrhage with Combined NSAID and Antidepressant Use
The British Medical Journal reports that the combined use of NSAIDs and anti-depressants were associate with higher rates of intracranial bleeding within 30 days of initiation (Citation source http://buff.ly/1gF3uEJ).
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DSB Reports & Updates – July 2015
FDA Scours the Internet for Safety Signals. A Bloomberg News report shows how the FDA is using Google or Yahoo keyword searches to identify new safety signals or drug interactions, often more than a year before they were brought to light by the FDA based on prior methodologies de
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