ANA Negative Lupus Nephritis - Does it Exist?

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A recent report from the Mayo Clinic describes a 49 year-old patient with lupus nephritis who presented with new-onset hypertension, edema, arthritis, serositis and leukocytoclastic vasculitis, and who later developed glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome.

Ultrasound Predicts Inflammatory Arthritis in CCP+ Persons Without Synovitis

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A prospective study of 136 people who were CCP+, but who had no clinical evidence of synovitis, examined what factors may predict future development of inflammatory arthritis.

Updated RA Treat-to-Target International Recommendations

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In 2010, Smolen and a group of international rheumatologists developed a series of recommendations addressing the concept of treat-to-target (T2T) in the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

UK Audit Shows Early RA Referrals Still Too Slow

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A national audit of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and early inflammatory arthritis patients included 6,354 patients drawn from 143 trusts and health boards in England and Wales. Early arthritis clinics exist in 57% of trusts.

ASBMR Guidance on Bisphosphonate Use

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The American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Task Force has issued a guidance report on the use of bisphosphonates (BP) with a focus on the risk vs. benefits of such therapy. (Citation source http://buff.ly/1Nn0CVb)

Methotrexate Nonadherence is Common

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Researchers from Belgium studied patient adherence to MTX (given orally or via injection) in 129 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients over a 16-week period using an electronic monitoring system and two validated adherence questionnaires.

DSB Reports & Updates - January 2016

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Comparative Harmful Risks with Targeted Immunomodulators. Desai et al did a systematic review of the literature, findings of 10 head-to-head RCTs and 51 observational studies.

MRI Bone Marrow Lesions Predict Worse Outcomes in Osteoarthritis

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Medical Research Council study shows MRI lesions may predict which patients will have more rapidly progressing osteoarthritis. 

Steroid Over-Prescribing Persists in RA

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Almost half of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the UK receive glucocorticoids from primary care physicians, and of those who are prescribed glucocorticoids, more than half receive more than 10 mg a day.

The Price of Drugs Continues to Increase

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Drug prices increased an average of 10% in 2015 (after a 13.5% increase in 2014) and includes big name drugs from major pharmaceutical companies.

Seropositivity Increases Risk of Rheumatoid Mortality

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Three European registries analyzed their cohorts for outcomes that may be related to seropositivity for anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticarbamylated protein (anti-CarP) antibodies.

Prescribing Rules

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If you are responsible for the outcome and welfare of patients – you need prescribing rules.

If you are supervising others or responsible for the training of those learning rheumatology – you need prescribing rules.

Cochrane Reviews Low Back Pain and Exercise

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A new Cochrane Review published today shows that targeting exercises to muscles that support and control the spine offers another strategy to reduce pain and disability caused by lower back pain.

The Global Prevalence of Spondyloarthritis

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SpA is a common disease, but with large variation in reported prevalence estimates, partly explained by differences in demographical and methodological characteristics. 

Increasing Hospitalization Rates for Shingles in Lupus

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An administrative claims study of lupus patients drawn from the United States National Inpatient Sample between 2000 to 2011, studied hospitalization rates related to bacteremia, pneumonia, opportunistic fungal infection, herpes zoster, cytomegalovirus, or pneumocystis pneumonia (P

New Scoring System Predicts 1 year survival in Hip Fracture Patients

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A prospective study was conducted in Germany to establish predictors of 1 year survival after a hip fracture in elderly people.

Famous Rheumatologist Quotes – Part II

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Last month, many rheumatologists offered up their favorite quotes. Most of these were on medicine, medical skills, some pertained to rheumatology and others were axioms for life.

DSB: Managing Methotrexate Toxicity (Best of 2015: #1)

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Methotrexate was first introduced in 1955 for leukemia and in 1986 became FDA approved for the treatment of adults with severe, active, rheumatoid arthritis or children with active polyarticular-course juvenile RA.

2015 ACR RA Guidelines Released– Finally! (Best of 2015: #2)

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ACR 2015 RA treatment guidelines were published yesterday, nearly a year after they were preliminarily presented at the 2014 ACR meeting in Boston. After a year of review and revision these have been posted.

A Rheumatology State of Mind (Best of 2015)

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A 2013 study reported that people from Denmark were the happiest. Reasons were postulated, but it was suggested it was because their expectations were so low.