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Birthday Gatherings Increase COVID-19 Risk
How risky are family gatherings, birthday parties and informal social gatherings? A cross-sectional analysis suggests that birthdays may be associated with increased rates of COVID-19 infection within households where there is a high COVID-19 prevalence in the population.
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Pain Persists in RA, Even Without Inflammation
One-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis had unacceptably high levels of pain 5 years after diagnosis, often despite low levels of inflammation, Swedish researchers found.
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Better Outcomes with Modern T2T in Pregnancy
With the expansion of knowledge regarding the safety of newer agents in pregnancy comes the PreCARA study showing that when pregnancy is planned and patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are treated with a modified treat-to-target (T2T) approach, superior outcomes can be anticipated.
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Progression from Psoriasis to Psoriatic Arthritis
The question of whether psoriasis is a state or pre-clinical psoriatic arthritis has been addressed by several studies; with one suggesting that biologic use in psoriasis may aver the future development of psoratic arthritis (PsA).
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FINCH 1 Trial Filgotinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis
The Annals of Rheumatic Disease has published the results of a head-to-head trial showing that the Janus kinase-1 (JAK1) preferential inhibitor filgotinib was superior to a tumour necrosis factor-α inhibitor (adalimumab) in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on methotrexate (MTX).
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Treatment of MIS-C COVID in Kids
The NEJM has published results of a real-world efficacty trial showing that COVID infected children with the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) respond better to initial IVIG plus glucocorticoids (than IVIG alone) which was associated with less subsequent cardiovascular co
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Do B-cell targeted therapies still have a place for the treatment of Sjogren’s?
B-cells play a major role in the pathogenesis of primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) through antibody-dependent and antibody-independent functions, as well as evident by progression to B-cell malignancies/lymphoma. Hence, targeting B-cell is attractive. Despite efficacy of B-cell depleting therapy with rituximab in Phase II trials and case series, it failed to meet its primary endpoint when investigated in two Phase III trials. It is worth noting that the primary endpoint used in both trials was a subjective measure. Post-hoc analyses however showed greater improvement in objective measures such as salivary flow rate and salivary gland ultrasound score in RTX-treated group vs placebo.
Therefore, do B-cell targeted therapies still have a place for the treatment of pSS?
Reader beware! Interpretation of effectiveness & safety of JAKi vs bDMARDs in real world data
Multiple studies compared effectiveness, retention and/or safety of biological DMARDs (bDMARDs) and JAK inhibitors (JAKi) at EULAR 2021.
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EULAR 2021 – Day 4 Report
It's been nearly two weeks since EULAR 21 ended. There were several presentations on the last day; notably, the late breaking abstracts and others. Here are a few of my favorites from Day 4, the final day of the meeting.
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Problems at the FDA
"While the Food and Drug Administration decision on new drugs usually follows the recommendations of the advisory committee..."; this oft used proviso is used to either indicate a pending FDA decision or an FDA decision that is contrary to the recommendation of the advisory committee co
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Psoriatic arthritis mortality & morbidities
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic condition with manifold clinical presentations. Health issues may be far beyond the classical associated conditions like uveitis, enthesitis etc. The current study of Tillett et al (OP0231) assessed comorbidities and patient characteristics comparing psoriasis patients with or without PsA.
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Current approach to lupus and pregnancy
All of us are extremely cautious with lupus patients when it comes to pregnancy. Presentation 6888 (Common issues in pregnancy management in lupus and anti-phospholipid syndrome by Dr. Rebecca Fischer-Betz) was an excellent overview of our current approach to lupus and pregnancy.
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RheumNow Podcast - Best of EULAR 2021
Dr. Jack Cush reviews and highlights his favorite abstracts and presentations from last week's virtual EULAR 2021 meeting.
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Combination vs. Sequential Therapy for the Treatment of Lupus Nephritis
Combination disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy may not be only for rheumatoid arthritis; combining disease modifying agents may be the path to better renal response.
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