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Granzyme - a major driver of inflammatory & autoimmune diseases

d EurekAlert!

Our immune system is armed with an array of defenses designed to detect and eliminate harmful threats. One of its most powerful defense mechanisms is the complement system—a group of proteins that patrols our body, ever vigilant for signs of infection or injury.

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Cannabis Hospitalizations and Mortality Risk

d Jack Cush, MD

A Canadian population, retrospective cohort study shows individuals needing hospital-based (emergency department or hospitalization) care for a cannabis use disorder (CUD) were at increased risk of death. 

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ACR Commends Legislation Addressing Harmful Medicare Payment Cuts to Physicians

d ACR

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) applauded the bipartisan introduction of the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025, legislation to fully offset the harmful 2.8% cut in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS).

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Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Becoming Milder?

d Jack Cush, MD

A 24 year, prospective study analyzing very early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in three consecutive eras suggests that RA has evolved since 2005, demonstrating less seropositivity, inflammation, and erosions but is characterized by more comorbidity, smoking and corticosteroid use.

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Pain Management in Rheumatoid Arthritis

d Jack Cush, MD

BMC has published a full read literture review of pharmacological pain management in rheumatoid arthritis, pointing out that the best evidence for pain control comes from the use of DMARDs and treat-to-target strategies.

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BSR Guideline on Management of Sjögren disease

d Jack Cush, MD

The British Society for Rheumatology has published its guideline for the management of adult and juvenile onset Sjogren's disease. 

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Recent Excess Mortality in Young Adults JAMA has published a University of Minnesota cross-sectional study showing early adult (ages 25-44) mortality in the U.S. has risen substantially between 2011 to 2019 and 2020 to 2023. The largest portion of 2023 excess mortality was… https://t.co/0LIoMqPkDj https://t.co/Ta5DU6aWfs
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Is IL-23i better than IL-17i at lowering PsA risk? Retrospective, real-world EHR data study from TriNetX shows that among 4580 adult psoriasis pts (2,273 on IL23i vs 2,307 on IL17i), IL23i had signif lower PsA incidence (HR 0.60; 0.44–0.82, P 0.001), esp if 41-65 yrs (HR 0.42) &… https://t.co/ZuCAiOTIke https://t.co/8PkDCugYy0
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QD Clinic - dsDNA without Lupus Insufficient Sxs to Dx SLE, but persistent dsDNA positivity - what to do? Features Dr. Jack Cush. QD Clinics - lessons from the clinic, sponsored by RNL2025 in Dallas, TX; Feb 8 & 9, 2025 Register at https://t.co/2dcFVgu8z6… https://t.co/ov8THqrPyC https://t.co/jmtqxcWzJ0

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QD Clinic - New Palmoplantar Psoriasis and PsA New Onset Palmoplantar PsO and PsA - what are the options? Features Dr. Jack Cush. QD Clinics - lessons from the clinic, sponsored by RNL2025 in Dallas, TX; Feb 8 & 9, 2025 Register at https://t.co/2dcFVgu8z6… https://t.co/HZZuDvga58 https://t.co/wWKhnIECwB

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Blood Flow Restriction to Reduce Pain in Knee OA A technique now widely used in sports medicine to speed recovery from leg injuries helped reduce symptoms and improve function in people with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, a randomized trial showed. https://t.co/IF1tkT5yvC https://t.co/0zQn8oBjeG

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Dannish study of 1 million infants, exposed vs unexposed to systemic glucocorticoids shows prenatal GC exposure assoc w/ higher risk of autism (RR 1.5), intellectual disability (1.3), ADHD (1.3), mood/anxiety (1.3). Same risk for 290K mothers w/ autoimmune/inflamm Dz… https://t.co/bXL3YqCIYZ https://t.co/psNVENXRPs
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SLE subphenotypes predisposed by distinct genetic risk loci. Multicenter 10 yr genotyping study on 1462 SLE pts (56% w/ lupus nephritis & 43% not LN) found significantly higher polygenic risk scores (PRS); significant LN variants included HLA, TNFAIP3, BLK, & STAT4.… https://t.co/zvYGct9aqG https://t.co/obgkHbXNWA
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Study of 702 pts who transitioned from PsO to PsA (median 9yrs) - no baseline differences in PsA pts who transitioned late (>9yrs); but on follow-up, the late group had lower Dz activity, less csDMARD use, but no difference in radiographic progression https://t.co/xUPXA79weS https://t.co/eUeemqovv8

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Seats are still available for virtual attendees! Join us THIS WEEKEND for RheumNow Live! https://t.co/kSd7tKywmM https://t.co/oyyY5EK04m

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Participation is Up! (1.31.2025) Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow. We also have two call-in cases on "Ask Cush Anything". https://t.co/kxMkDW5X8c https://t.co/AjIuNzk7co

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How did Rheumatology go from being the happiest specialist to now being 5th from the bottom at 65%? Top heavy happiness seems to be influenced by income? what do you think? Allergy 94% Pathology 88% Dermatology 87% .... Rheum 67% Internal med 66%... https://t.co/YTKMElL868 https://t.co/RnsIVYWBFo

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Target Trial Emulation Study from EUSTAR - Adding po glucocorticoids (<20mg/d Pred) to immunosuppressives to 208 early diffuse systemic sclerosis pts does not improve skin scores. 12 mos mRSS change similar (-2.7 vs -3.1); same w/ shorter dz (≤ 24 mos) or w/ mRSS ≤22.… https://t.co/QVbhFOEfIk https://t.co/9GrRpaWenh
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A 3rd Actemra biosimilar was approved by the FDA - Celltrion announced approval of its 7th biosimilar, Avtozma (CT-P47, tocilizumab-anoh); both IV & SCm for Rx of RA, GCA, pJIA, Still's dz & Covid-19. Joins other IL-6 biosimilars Tofidence (Biogen 10/23) & Tyenne (Frensius 3/24)… https://t.co/UtG9YOXUX2 https://t.co/j3LzG7beys
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Congratulations to 2025 Crafoord Prize (in Polyarthritis) laureates Christopher Goodnow, (UNSW Sydney, Australia), and David Nemazee (Scripss,, USA) for their work on tolerance checkpoints - prevent B cells from attacking the body’s own tissues in autoimmune diseases… https://t.co/WSyXVIFJa1 https://t.co/JtBau2JSvo
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