All News
Post-Approval Exploratory Trials with Pregabalin Often Fail
A systematic review of 238 pregabalin (Lyrica) trials for nonapproved indications shows that nearly two-thirds yielded uncertain evidence of efficacy, thereby questioning the off-label use or endorsement in clinical practice guidelines.
Read Article
Hepatic Safety of Urate Lowering Therapies in Gout
Lee and a group of Korean investigators have analyzed the comparative safety of allopurinol and febuxostat in a small cohort of gout patients with fatty liver disease (FLD) and found febuxostat had a lower risk for hepatotoxicity (defined as AST or ALT at least 3× the upper limit of normal)
Read Article
Diagnosing Early Lupus from Mimics
A multicenter study of early systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients examined manifestations at disease onset and found that certain clinical features can help to distinguish early SLE from other SLE‐mimicking conditions.
Read Article
High CV Risk in Lupus
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remain at risk for accelerated atherosclerosis, and important questions have yet to be answered, British investigators reported.
Read Article
Trazodone High Risk of Falls and Fractures
The CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) has reported that trazadone use in the elderly may be associated with a risk of falls and major fractures.
Read Article
Steroid Injection Superior to Splinting in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Lancet has published a comparative effectiveness study examining the the value of night splints (conservative treatment) vs local injection for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome.
Read ArticleAURA-LV Trial - Voclosporin Effective in Lupus Nephritis
The AURA-LV trial assessed voclosporin, a calcineurin inhibitor in patients with active lupus nephritis (LN) and found that low-dose voclosporin may be successfully added to mycophenolate mofetil and corticosteroids to controll active LN.
Read Article
The RheumNow Podcast – Heartbreak of Methotrexate (11.16.18)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news from the past week at RheumNow.com.
Read Article
Pre-Diabetes Associated Risk for Arthritis, Obesity and Physical Inactivity
The current MMWR reports that arthritis is seen in nearly one-third of adults with prediabetes and that more than half of such patients are obese and not engaged in regular physical activity.
Read Article
CIRT Trial - Methotrexate Fails at Cardiovascular Prevention
Methotrexate has been shown to reduce cardiovascular (CV) deaths in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Given that inflammation underlies the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis, Dr. Paul Ridker and colleagues studied the value of low dose methotrexate (MTX) in preventing cardiovascular events.
Read Article
Intensive Patient Education Does Not Improve Low Back Pain Care
JAMA reports on a randomized clinical trial of 202 adults with acute low back pain showing the addition of intensive patient education failed to improve pain outcomes.
Read Article
IgG4-Related Disease: First Draft Criteria Presented at ACR 2018
As Dr. John Stone, MD, MPH recounted in his presentation regarding the new ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for IgG4-Related Disease (IgG4-RD), only 15 years prior, IgG4-related disease was an unknown entity in the medical community.
Read Article
Low Short-Term Risks of NSAIDs in High Risk Patients
JAMA has published a large Canadian claims-based study showing that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use in patients with hypertension, heart failure, or chronic kidney disease was not associated with a significant safety risk - but this only looked at short-term outcomes (7-3
Read Article
Late Breaker: Can Tanezumab Be Revived for OA?
The monoclonal antibody tanezumab, which blocks nerve growth factor, showed significant benefits in pain and function among patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee or hip, and rates of severe adverse joint events such as rapidly progressive OA that had plagued earlier studies were low, a re
Read Article
Ixekizumab COAST-V Trial Wins in Axial Spondyloarthritis
Lancet has published the results of a study showing that ixekizumab (an IL-17A inhibitor) yielded significant clinical benefit and radiographic protection when given to NSAID treated patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA).
Read Article
Doubling Down on IL-17 In Psoriatic Arthritis
The monoclonal antibody bimekizumab, which neutralizes both interleukin (IL)-17A and 17F, was effective for both musculoskeletal and skin outcomes in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in a phase IIb study.
Read Article
Spotlight on Interstitial Lung Disease at ACR 2018
Here are a few important advances in our understanding of interstitial lung disease (ILD) from the ACR 2018 meeting last week.
Read Article
Anti-phospholipid Antibodies and Myocardial Infarction.
The Annals of Internal Medicine features a communique from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden demonstrating that elevated levels of antiphospholipid antibodies may be found in patients with myocardial infarction without any autoimmune co-morbidity, published in Annals of Internal M
Read Article
Treat-to-Target Strategy Cuts Mortality in Gout Patients
More intense treatment of gout with a treat-to-target strategy can reduce patients' risk for death, a Spanish researcher told a press conference Monday at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting here.
Read Article
RheumNow ACR Week in Review: ACR Wrap-Up (10.26.18)
This past week in Chicago gave us a plethora of new and eye-opening research, people, KOLs, exhibits, sessions, guidelines, posters and a never-ending supply of coffee served in small paper cups. ACR 2018 highlights for me included:
Read Article
