The NEJM has published a multicenter study wherein patients with surgical lumbar spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis were found to fair equally well (noninferior if treated with decompression surgery alone compared to decompression with instrumented fusion.

A retrospective cohort study examined the need for joint replacement surgery in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and showed there has been a trend to delay arthroplasty over time. The JIA category, year of implant, and presence of complications significantly affected implant survivorship.

The Journal of Autoimmunity reports that anti-HMRCR antibody positive, necrotizing myositis patients frequently have cutaneous lesions, moreso than previously reported.

A retrospective analysis of the ACR RISE registry shows that multimorbidity is not only common in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but also impacts treatment choices and outcomes.

Randomized clinical trials in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) are fraught with fault and inconclusive outcome measures, including the more recently developed EULAR Sjögren's Syndrome Disease Activity Index (ESSDAI).  There's a new composite endpoint outcome for RCTs in pSS, called the Composite of Relevant Endpoints for Sjögren's Syndrome (CRESS).

A prospective, longitudinal study of the cognitive development of children born to mothers with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) demonstrates normal development as measured by comparative school test scores.

AstraZeneca announced today that anifrolumab (Saphnelo or anifrolumab-fnia) was approved by the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who are receiving standard therapy.  

"Fibromyalgianess" is highlighted as a risk factor for undue, extended glucocorticoid use in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, according to Wallace and colleagues in Rheumatology.

How much psoriasis do you need to have in order to have psoriatic arthritis? This plus a review of rheumatology and COVID news from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Registry data suggests an increased risk of herpes zoster (HZ, shingles) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients taking JAK inhibitors (JAKi) but also with other biologic DMARDs, compared to csDMARDs.

Methotrexate and leflunomide (LEF) are the most widely prescribed DMARDs worldwide; yet biologic DMARDs are the newest and best selling agents for rheumatoid arthritis worldwide.

An increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in rheumatoid arthritis is well known and feared but an RA cohort study suggests that preventive medication use in RA patients lags behind that seen in diabetes mellitus (DM).

Disease activity leads to poor outcomes; but does comorbidity add to this?  A recent analysis suggests that while comorbidities do not affect long-term, functional outcomes, sociodemographic factors do affect outcomes in rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Sparks and colleagues have published data from the Global Rheumatology Alliance noting that among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients afflicted with COVID-19 infection, there was little influence of their baseline biologic or targeted synthetic (b/ts) disease-modifying antirheumatic drug

Bicycles, Tramadol, biologics - these are but a few of my favorites things in today's broadcast. Join me as I review the news and journal articles from this past week on RheumNow.com.

A large RA cohort analysis shows that low-dose glucocorticoid therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients may carry an increased risk of vertebral osteoporotic (OP) fractures. 

Deodhar and colleagues have published the results of a study showing that in adult patients with active ankylosing spondylitis (AS), oral tofacitinib was effective (versus placebo) and is safe.