Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had high levels of inflammation at baseline were at increased risk for later heart failure, a large cohort study found.

Registry level data of patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) diagnosed with COVID-19 should continue their TNF inhibitor (TNFi) therapy as such patients were less likely to experience adverse COVID-19 outcomes (compared to other immunomodulatory treatments).

B-cell depletion therapy with obinutuzumab, a type II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, in lupus nephritis patients was shown to be effective in in combination with standard lupus therapies.

Tight-control or treat-to-target (T2T) strategy is advocated in several diseases, but the recent TICOSPA trial in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) showed that T2T was not superior to usual care (UC).

A recent analysis shows thta glucocorticoids (GCs), usually recommended for short-term use in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), are variably used by rheumatologists, and that provider preference is a strong predictors of long-term glucocorticoid use.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the FDA approvals, news and the latest journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

EULAR has updated its recommendations (points to consider - PtC) for rheumatologists managing patients during COVID-19; now with 2 overarching principles and 12 PtC.

Both systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and adult-onset Still’s disease are acquired autoinflammatory disorders of uncertain etiology. Yet recent reports of AOSD onset and flare following COVID-19 vaccinations may have important mechanistic implications.

Bernatsky and colleagues have shown cancer risk factors in incident systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Researchers analyzed an SLE cohort of 1,668 patients, over an average of 9 years follow-up and found 65 cancers: 15 breast; 10 nonmelanoma skin; 7 lung; 6 hematologic; 6 prostate; 5 melanoma; 3 cervical; 3 renal; 2 each gastric, head and neck, and thyroid; and, 1 each rectal, sarcoma, thymoma, and uterine cancers.

A randomized controlled trial has shown that treatment of plaque psoriasis via costimulatory blockade ( CD28/B7) with abatacept did not prevent psoriasis relapse after withdrawal of ustekinumab.

Hepatitis B reactivation is an uncommon complication of biologic therapy use. Now, a serologic study of  rheumatoid arthritis patients shows that HBV reactivation is seen with rituximab, and less so with abatacept, especially in patients without hepatitis B antibody (HBsAb) positiv

A prospective, phase 3 trial of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in sustained remission has shown more than half will flare if disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) therapy is tapered or discontinued and that remission is best maintained by continued DMARD therapy.

October 8, 2021 the U.S.

While myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs) and myositis-associated autoantibodies (MAAs) may have prognostic value through their clinical associations, many patients will not have them and overall, they are poorly predictive of a malignancy risk. 

The latest CDC estimates of the national prevalence of arthritis and arthritis-attributable activity limitations (AAAL) show a continued increase in absolute number: 58.5 million (23.7%) U.S. adults have arthritis, 25.7 million (43.9%) of whom have AAAL. 

An erosive hand osteoarthritis (EOA) study from the Osteoarthritis Initiative shows that EOA is more common in older women and is strongly linked to further progressive, articular structural damage.

This was a longitudinal cohort study of 3,365 individuals without prevalent erosive hand OA at baseline.

Ogdie and colleagues have retrospectively analyzed a longitudinal cohort of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients, showing that only two-thirds of PsA are diagnosed by rheumatologists, PCPs and dermatologists, with significant differences in what preemptive symptoms were noted by different subspecialties.