A study of 527 patients receiving daily hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) concluded that hydroxychloroquine blood levels may predict future HCQ retinopathy.

Highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday (days 3 and 4) from the ACR annual meeting include: the important and impactful abstracts covered by the Rheumatology Roundup session; upadacitinib clinical trials; and the baricitinib CV and VTE safety analysis.

Dr. Jack Cush delivers select commentary on select news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Annals of Internal Medicine reports that age-adjusted mortality rates for antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody–associated vasculitides (AAV) have improved over time - with a decline of nearly 2 percent per year in the United States from 1999 to 2017. Nevertheless, long-term outcomes continue to lag behind mortality rates of the general population.

Elevated serum levels of interferon-α among patients whose systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was in remission helped predict future disease flares, European researchers found.

Patients diagnosed with interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) are at an increased risk of developing a systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease (ARD).

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the News and Journal Reports from this week on RheumNow.com.

The NEJM reports on a randomized comparison of hemiarthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty in displaced femoral neck fractures and shows no difference in function and quality of life over 24 months.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Rituxan (rituximab) for the treatment of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in children 2 years of age and older in combination with glucocorticoids.

This is the first approved treatment for children with vasculitis.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Opioids are generally not indicated for pain in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and other rheumatic diseases because of limited efficacy and risks for preference and adverse health effects.

A double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of low-dose IL-2 in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has shown that low-dose IL-2 induced was clinically effective while expandng regulatory T cells and NK cells, which may benefit immune homeostasis in SLE patients.

Braaten and colleagues from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have reported their experience with chronic inflammatory arthritis induced by immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies, showing that in some, inflammatory arthritis persists after the immunotherapy has been discontinued.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Metanalysis shows that temporal artery biopsy (TAB) for the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA) has a sensitivity of 77%, similar to results seen with temporal artery imaging. These data suggest clinicians may be willing to accept a GCA diagnosis without proof by TAB.

Obinutuzumab (Gazyva) has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in adults with lupus nephritis (LN). The drug made by Genentech, is going forward based on the Phase II NOBILITY study in adult patients with proliferative lupus nephritis (LN). Currently, there are no FDA-approved medicines for lupus nephritis.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Riociguat is an oral, selective soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator that has been studied in patients with digital ulcers (DU) due to systemic sclerosis (SSc) but study results show that short term (16 weeks) riociquat therapy does not sufficiently reduce the DU burden in SSc patients.