We use biologic agents on a daily basis in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Despite having an expanding array of options, our profession is keen on gaining a deeper understanding of why certain drugs fail and being able to predict the most appropriate next steps in treatment. 

This Tuesday Night Rheumatology panel discussion on "Methotrexate Decisions" features Drs. Michael Weinblatt, Grace Wright, Richard Conway and Joel Kremer.

This Tuesday Night Rheumatology was an hour long panel discussion featuring Drs. Jack Cush, Vivian Bykerk, Glen Hazelwood and Martin J. Bergman.

The​ Panel discussed Rheumatologists ​views on Early RA referral and intake, initial treatment preferences and views on diagnosing and treating pre-clinical RA.

Daily hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is better than an apple a day; as a new study shows that adherence to the antimalarial agent significantly lowers future risk of cardiovascular events in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients.

This week, Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news with special guest, Dr. Janet Pope. They discuss "Not-non-Inferior", large scale genetic screening, Zoster risk w/ newer lupus drugs, tapering, RA referral problems and the TNR webinar session on "ORAL Surveillance Revisited".

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow, and introduces our September campaign - "Hard Decisions in RA".

Patients with gout and type 2 diabetes treated with SGLT2 inhibitors not only had reduced numbers of gout flares, but also lived longer compared with other such patients receiving other medications, researchers said.

Potentially modifiable comorbid conditions and complications have a major impact on the risks of total hip arthroplasty (THA) for people in their nineties, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Dr. Jack Cush comments on the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com: VEXAS scoring, scleroderma sine scleroderma and head scratchers from southeast Asia.

A real-world rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cohort study from Israel shows significant variability of drug survival using biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatics drugs (bDMARDs) and targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs).

Medicare beneficiaries with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) incur frequent bone fractures, a new study indicated, with the risk boosted by some unsurprising factors but also including one that was not expected.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from RheumNow.com this past week.

The IL-23 inhibitor guselkumab was studied in active psoriatic arthritis patients in the phase 3b COSMOS trial, and shown to be clinically effective while reducing multiple effector cytokines, including those associated with the IL-23/IL-17 pathway.

The safety of abatacept was studied using patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from 7 European registers, revealing safety signals on par with that previously reported with no new safety concerns. 

In 2023, three marketed biosimilars (Actemra, Stelara, Humira) had their patents expire, opening opportunities for multiple new biosimilars; but with competition comes a word salad of new drug names, confusion and nonsensical discounts.

A pooled analysis of 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) shows that the effects of 2 years of low-dose glucocorticoid (GC) treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can significantly increase increase body weight, but not blood pressure.

The COLCHICORT trial in patients with acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis (CPPD) demonstrated equivalent efficacy for both colchicine and prednisone, yet different safety signals were seen.

Most rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients 65 and older who had 5 mg/day of prednisolone added to standard care were successfully weaned from the steroid without seeing substantial increases in disease activity, researchers said.