A Mayo Clinic population based cohort study shows the extraarticular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis (ExRA) have declined with time; but the increased mortality risk of RA remains unchanged.

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".

Early diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis (IA) is rooted in patient (self or MD) referrals. A recent analysis shows only a minority of rheumatology referrals had inflammatory arthritis, with only 21% were seen within the first 6 weeks of symptoms. 

The safety of tofacitinib and TNF inhibitors was studied in high risk rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in the ORAL Surveillance study, which culminated in an FDA warning in January 2021 on the cardiovascular, cancer and VTE risks associated with JAK inhibitor use.

A large cohort study has shown that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are at an increased risk of developing aortic stenosis (AS), undergoing aortic valve intervention, or AS-related death.

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

Researchers have shown that gut microbiome differences may be associated with later development of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and that such differences are present years before the disease is diagnosed.

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).

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.

Monoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (monoJIA) is typically classified under oligoarticular JIA, but a recent study suggests it is a separate entity.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the wonderful wide world of Rheumatology. This week:

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.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.  This week highlights Veterans, Vegetarians and Antenatal Corticosteroids.