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Plaquenil Does Not Protect Lupus Patients from COVID-19 (Best of 2020)
Annals of Rheumatic Disease reports on an analysis of lupus (SLE) patients that shows COVID-19 infection rates were similar between those lupus patients who were taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and those not taking HCQ.
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Update on Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis (Best of 2020)
JAMA has published a clinical update of recent studies on GCA. While PET/CT scanning are novel means of demonstrating activity, they have not changed the diagnostic approach to GCA or PMR and although there are no new proven treatment strategies for PMR beyond glucocorticoids, the FDA has approved tocilizumab as a first-line glucocorticoid-sparing agent.
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ACR 2020 Reproductive Guidelines - Medication Use with Pregnancy (Best of 2020)
The ACR has published guidelines to manage reproductive health issues in rheumatic disease (RMD) patients before, during and after pregnancy. In this second excerpt from their guidelines articles, we present recommendations (and good clinical practice statements) for paternal rheumatology medication use by men with RMD and on conventional rheumatology medications and biologic use in pregnancy for women with RMD.
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ACR 2020 Reproductive Guidelines - Lactation Guidance (Best of 2020)
In this third excerpt from the ACR guidelines on managing reproductive health issues in rheumatic disease patients, we present recommendations regarding the use of glucocorticoids and guidance on lactation and medication use post-partum.
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Best of 2020: New EULAR/ACR Classification Criteria for SLE
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) have jointly developed new classification criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); prompted by the need for criteria that were both highly sensitive and specific. The net result is improved sensitivity and specificity, but the use of positive ANA requirement along with a longer list of weighted criteria ensures its utility in SLE research (including early or latent SLE), but not clinical practice.
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Best of 2020: The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Registry
What started out as online tweets and sharing newsfeed and case reports, has progressed to the formation of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, whose mission is to create an international rheumatology registry of patients affected by the disease in order to better understand the disease and guide clinicians in assessing and treating patients.
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Best of 2020: Rheumatic Disease Drugs and COVID-19
We are in the early stages of trying to limit the morbid and mortal consequences of the corona virus pandemic of 2020. Not surprisingly, the recommendations designed to limit exposure and damage continually highlight the fact that the elderly and immunosuppressed may be amongst the most severely affected should they become infected with this virus.
This has led to a great deal of uncertainty by patients and providers about how rheumatic diseases and their treatments need to be specifically addressed.
Best of 2020: The Nine Lives of Hydroxychloroquine (Updated)
Hydroxychloroquine is one of many medications frequently used in rheumatology practice. Its remarkable versatility is attested by its routine use in lupus, in patients with an autoimmune coagulopathy, in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as well as in those with a low-level inflammatory arthropathy.
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Encouraging Rheumatology Fellowship Match for 2021
The results of the National Residents Matching Program (NRMP) match in rheumatology are out and show that rheumatology fellowship was both competitive and highly sought after.
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COVID-19 as a Leading Cause of Death in the USA
The exponential rise in deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last several months is put into perspective by JAMA Viewpoint article noting that current US death rates of > 3000 per day from COVID-19 is greater than that seen in one day on September 11, 2001 (9/11 attacks, claimed 2988 lives) or by a fictional catastrophe of 15 Airbus 320 jetliners (150 passengers each) crashing daily.
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Benlysta First Agent Approved for Lupus Nephritis
After the successful completion of the BLISS-LN trial and previewing the results at EULAR 2020 and ACR Convergence, GlaxoSmithKline announced yesterday that the FDA has approved belimumab (Benlysta) for use in adults with active lupus nephritis (LN) receiving background/standard therapy.
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Filgotinib Bows Out of the RA Race in the USA
Gilead Sciences Inc announced yesterday that it has decided not to pursue the an rheumatoid arthritis (RA) indicatin for its once daily oral JAK inhibitor, filgotinib (also named Jyseleca).
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Consensus Recommendations on JAK Inhibitor Use
A steering committee and task force was convened to develop recommendations for the use of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID).
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Lung Cancer Survival With Autoimmune Disease
Lung cancer risk is often increased with inflammation and autoimmune disease; a recent analysis suggests that patients with autoimmune disease do not have worse survival, even though they may have received less than the standard-of-care treatments.
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COVID Risks in Systemic Autoimmune Patients
There have been conflicting reports of whether rheumatic patients have greater risks once they are infected with COVID-19. This claims cohort analysis suggests a mixed picture.
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RheumNow Podcast – Stop These COVID Mistakes (12.11.20)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com.
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Rheumatic Disease and COVID-19: Who Is at Risk?
Patients with rheumatic and inflammatory diseases who develop COVID-19 share risk factors for severe disease with the larger population, including older age, male sex, obesity, and hypertension, but also are at increased risk if they are on corticosteroids, French investigators reported.
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Systemic Steroids Seldom Flare Psoriasis
A tenet of drug management suggests that steroid use in psoriasis may be associated with rebound flares; well this has been challenged by a new observational trial showing that the risk of flares (and severe flares) of psoriasis flares were seldom triggered by systemic steroids - certainly much l
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Upadacitinib Effective in Biologic Refractory Psoriatic Arthritis
The SELECT-PsA 2 trial was presented at the ACR meeting and recently published in Annals of Rheumatic Disease, shows that psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients who have failed at least one biologic DMARD, did respond well to upadacitinib.
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