Pregnancy and Contraception in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases

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A number of abstracts at this year’s ACR in Chicago highlighted issues around pregnancy and contraception advice in routine clinical practice.

Hydroxychloroquine Dosing: the Great Debate

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Rheumatologists tend to be a conservative bunch of people. We’re law abiding and we (mostly) follow guidelines. Which is fine when they are in the best interests of our patients, but what do we do when we fundamentally disagree?

Autoimmunity in the Setting of Primary Immunodeficiency

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There are many avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration within rheumatology, as our specialty encompasses every organ system and diseases with protean manifestations.

The Great Debate: Plaquenil - Choosing Safety over Efficacy?

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RheumNow Week in Review – ACR Preview Edition (10.19.18)

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Dr. Jack Cush summarizes the news and reports from RheumNow.Com this past week and previews RheumNow activities at the upcoming ACR 2018 meeting in Chicago.

Teenage Obesity Increases Lupus Risk

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Analysis of the Black Women's Health Study shows that obesity as a teenager may be associated with increased risk of systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) in adulthood.

SLE-Scleroderma Overlap Outcomes

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Overlap of autoimmune disorders represents a significant diagnostic and management challenge to the rheumatologist. A novel cohort analysis of overlap between systemic sclerosis (SSc) and systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) suggests such patients tend to be younger, more frequently have PAH, but less cutaneous manifestations of SSc.

Excess Mortality in CTD or Systemic Vasculitis Patients

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The Norwegian connective tissue disease (CTD) and systemic vasculitis (PSV) registry (NOSVAR) studied patient outcomes over a 15 year period and found overall mortality to be higher in the CTD compared to the PSV group.

RheumNow Week in Review – I Wanna New Drug (9.28.18)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news from the past week on RheumNow.com, including news on inappropriate opioids, pre-clinical RA treatment, DMARDs in Gout, the decline of arthroscopy, and a pain in the mouth.

Ustekinumab May be Effective in Lupus

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Ronald F van Vollenhoven and colleagues have reported in Lancet that ustekinumab (UST), an interleukin-12 and -23 inhibitor, when added to usual therapy in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, was shown to be superior to placebo at improving clinical efficacy and laboratory param

Update on Myositis

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The ACR/ARHP 2018 national meeting in Chicago presented us with opportunities to learn more about inflammatory myositis. A particularly interesting lecture was HOT topics in myositis. There were a few abstracts on MDA-5 related disease and a few on new or repurposed medications for dermatomyositis which will be covered here.

An Association between GCA and IBD ?

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A population based analysis from Israel suggests that giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients may be at increased risk for  inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) mainly target.

Breast Implant Study: More Worries or Not?

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The Annals of Surgery reports on an anlaysis of FDA-mandated postmarket studies, including nearly 100,000 breast implant pprocedures, that showed silicone implants to be associated with higher rates of  Sjögren's syndrome, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, stillbirth, and melanoma.

New Classification of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies

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Using an observational cohort analysis of patients in the French myositis network, researchers have proposed a new classification of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) with four subgroups: dermatomyositis, inclusion body myositis, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, and antisynthetas

Depression Increases Risk of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

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Twenty-year data from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) suggests that depression is associated with a 2-fold increased frequency of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) - the question is why?

Interferon Blocker Disappoints in SLE

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Yet another setback has occurred in the efforts to develop new medications for treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), as anifrolumab failed to meet the primary endpoint in a phase III trial, according to AstraZeneca and MedImmune. 

ACR Releases State-by-State Rheumatic Disease Report Card

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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today released the Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America, a first-of-its-kind report that evaluates just how difficult it can be to live well with a rheumatic disease in the United States.

CRA Recommendations for Lupus Assessment and Monitoring

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A Canadian Rheumatology Association SLE Working Group was established to develop recommendations for the assessment of people with systemic lupus erythematosus.

A panel that included 23 adult rheumatologists, 4 pediatric rheumatologists, 1 immunologist, 4 general internal medicine and rheumatology trainees, and a patient representative, used GRADE methodology to assess the literature and develop guidelines.

New BSR Guidelines on Biologic Safe Use with Inflammatory Arthritis

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The British Society of Rheumatology has produced a set of NICE accredited guidelines for the use of biologic therapies in patients with inflammatory arthritis.