In the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. James Rosenbaum and Gregg Silverstein review the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from the viewpoint of a dysbiolsis.

Dr. Jack Cush discusses the past week's news and journal articles featured on RheumNow.com - including reports on advance practice clinicians, baricitinib, gout, disease activity, hypomagnesemia and upadacitinib.

The development and progression of interstitial lung disease in systemic sclerosis can be an ominous finding.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who were assessed as being in a low disease activity state during more than half of clinical visits had a decrease in organ damage events of approximately 50%, a retrospective study found.

Researchers from the Toronto Lupus Clinic have described an atypical “monophasic” course in a small number (7.5%) of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients who achieved and sustained clinical remission, with most off of all medications for an average of 18 years.

Treatment of refractory giant cell arteritis (GCA) with ustekinumab (Stelara) showed therapeutic promise as a steroid-sparing agent in a small, open-label study, Irish researchers reported.

A study of MPO-ANCA positive patients followed serially over 2 years shows that reappearance of MPO‐ANCA may predict  relapse in patients with MPO‐ANCA positive AAV and that routine MPO‐ANCA monitoring is warranted. 

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.  He discusses opioids, new approval for polyarticular JIA, running and osteoarthritis, and modifiable behaviors that influence outcomes. 

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

A retrospective follow-up study of 499 lupus nephritis (LN) patients over three successive eras shows that LN has become less severe in recent years and thus, better long-term survival is possible.

Mortality remains high in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), but the causes of death tend to change over time, a researcher reported here.

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

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

The French Vasculitis Study Group has published the results of the MAINRITSAN2 trial designed to  compare individually tailored versus fixed-schedule rituximab (RTX) reinfusion for remission maintenance in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAVs).

The monoclonal antibody epratuzumab showed promise as a B-cell depleting agent in patients with concomitant systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjogren's syndrome, a post-hoc analysis of two phase III trials found.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.  A second life for Syk kinase, Vitamin D talk, VTE, regulatory hearings and the Lupus clinic edge.

I suspect that everyone in rheumatology has a special place in their hearts for lupus patients. Their disease is so cruel, and we have so little to offer them, but the young women (and some men) that I treat keep battling on. The longer I have cared for them, the more I wanted to do for them.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Highlights includes manpower shortfalls, comorbidities in AA Lupus, certolizumab pregnancy safety, which Shingles vaccine is best and the power of combination biologics in severe refractory  SLE.

One of the driving pathogenic mechanisms in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the generation of immune complexes capable of inducing netosis (NET formation) and NET-derived DNA that may be an amplifying autoantigen and give rise to anti-nuclear autoantibodies (ANAs). 

Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center used electronic health records (EHR) to perform a phenome-wide study comparing African American (AA-SLE) and Caucasian (C-SLE) with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and found more comorbidities in AA-SLE, especially renal, cardiovascular, an