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Concern Still Lingers for Silicone Breast Implants
What do you tell your patients who are considering augmentation mammoplasty? Or who question the safety of prior implants?
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Western Diet Increased the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis
Liu and coworkers from Boston presented abstract #1213, with data from the NHS II Survey. They examined 93,859 women (without RA) and their dietary data from 1991 to 2011.
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2015 ACR RA Guidelines Released– Finally!
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.
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Invokana Decreases Autoimmune Risk
In September, the FDA issued warnings that the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inihibitor Invokana may cause a dose-dependant increased risk of bone fractures. This was based on a review of nin
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Increasing Trends for Prescription Drugs, But Not for Arthritis Drugs
JAMA reports the results of trends in drug use in the USA over a 13 year period using data derived 37959 adults survey in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
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Economic Burden of ANCA-Associated Vasculitis in the USA
To assess the prevalence and magnitude of healthcare costs associated with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in the USA, researchers analyzed adminstrative data from Truven Health MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental databases.
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Wine, Lupus, Pregnancy and Biosimilars: October 2015 -Top Social Media News
In October 2015, RheumNow published 76 tweets about impactful news, research and teaching points that impact the rheumatology community. In October, RN had a reach (impressions) of 49,500, 79 mentions, and over 2000 visits to RheumNow.com to check out what we publish.
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More Adverse Events with Off-Label Drug Use
Off-label use of prescription drugs was associated with adverse drug events in a study of patients in Canada, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Repeat Skin Cancer Risk with Methotrexate and Biologics
Using Medicare claims data, a retrospective cohort study analyzed the risk of a second non-melanomatous skin cancer (NMSC) in 9460 individuals (6841 with RA and 2788 with IBD).
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DSB: Drug Shortages - October 2015
Each month, RheumNow reviews compiled listings of drug shortages germane to the practive of rheumatology using several sources. If you have suggestions or information about specific drug shortages or drug safety issues please email us at info@rheumnow.
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No Correlation Between Urate Crystal Identification and Cardiovascular Risk
A Danish cohort study examined patients with hyperuricemia and compared outcomes in those proven to have urate crystal deposition (317 patients) and matched 1:1 to patients without urate crystals.
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Downward Trends in US Mortality Statistics
Using death certificate data from US National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, JAMA reports a downward trend in death rates in the USA from 1969 - 2013).
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Obamacare Deficient in Rheumatologists, Other Specialists
The October 27 issue of JAMA reports a study of federal marketplace insurance plans shows roughly 15 percent completely lacked in-network physicians for at least one specialty, a practice found among multiple states and issuers.
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Vertebral Fractures in 10% of Spondyloarthritis Patients
Vertebral fractures are not uncommon in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and spondyloarthritis.
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IV Cyclophosphamide Equal to Mycophenolate in Lupus Nephritis
A comparison of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and low-dose cyclophosphamide IV (CYC) in the treatment of lupus nephritis (LN) was examined in 173 patients with class III, IV, or V LN.
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U.S. Pays 10 Times More for Prescription Drugs than Other Countries
Prescription drugs may cost up to 10 times more in the United States than they do in other countries, according to a 2013 Comparative Price Report was released last month by the International Federation of Health Plans (IFHP).
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Sleep Apnea Increases Risk of Gout
Zhang and colleagues from Boston analyzed patients with physician diagnosed sleep apnea from The Health Improvement Network in the UK and compared these with 5 controls (age, sex, BMI matched). They studied 9,865 patients with sleep apnea and 43,598 controls.
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Bronchiectasis Contributes to Activity and Seropositivity in Rheumatoid Arthritis
UK investigators have shown that rheumatoid arthritis patients with bronchiectasis (BRRA) have a five-fold increased mortality compared to RA without bronchiectasis. It is unclear if serologic differences, activity measures and biomarkers may be different in this cohort.
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ICD-10 Headlines
Nearly 2 weeks have passed since the painful launch of ICD-10 in US medical practices.
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Physical Therapy Has Modest Effects on Acute Low Back Pain
A new JAMA study shows new onset back pain treated with physical therapy yields modest short-term (3 months) improvement.
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