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2015 Guidelines for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing form of interstitial pneumonia, with poor survival rates of nearly 50% at 3 years.
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Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Have an Increased Risk of Gout
The frequency of gout among patients with psoriatic disease was studied in two cohorts of 98,810 patients from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2010) and the Nurses' Health Study (1998-2010).
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Outcry Over the Cost of Drugs
Several news articles have addressed the rising concern by patients and physicians over the cost of newer drugs. This issue comes to a head as more than 100 oncologists from top cancer hospitals around the U.S.
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DSB: Drug Shortages July 2015
Several drugs continue to be in short supply, posing significant problems for patients. Foremost on this list is leflunomide (Arava) which is backordered for both 10 mg and 20 mg tablets.
Leflunomide Shortage
Read ArticleRituximab Induced Serum Sickness
Karmacharya and colleages have reviewed 33 cases of rituximab-induced serum sickness. Half of these patients had the classic triad of SS fever, rash, and arthralgia and a self-limiting course. The time to onset after infusion was greater with the first dose of rituximab c
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Increasing Age May Increase Miscarriage Risk in RA
At EULAR 2015, Brouwer and colleagues reported on their cohort of 162 evaluable pregnancies in 239 Dutch women enrolled during 2002-2010 in the nationwide Pregnancy-Induced Amelioration of Rheumatoid Arthritis (PARA) study – a large prospective cohort of pregnant RA patients.
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Does Antibiotic Exposure Increase the Risk of JIA?
According to the CDC, between 4300 and 9700 children under the age of 16 are diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis each year - the cause of which is unknown.
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DSB Reports & Updates – July 2015
FDA Scours the Internet for Safety Signals. A Bloomberg News report shows how the FDA is using Google or Yahoo keyword searches to identify new safety signals or drug interactions, often more than a year before they were brought to light by the FDA based on prior methodologies de
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Xeljanz Warnings on Shingles Updated by FDA
The MedWatch June 2015 safety labeling changes were published yesterday, and updated the warnings for Xeljanz (tofacitinib). "The risk of herpes zoster is increased in patients treated with Xeljanz and appears to be higher in patients treated with Xeljanz in Japan."
Read ArticlePost-Translationally Modified Proteins as Potential New Early Arthritis Activity Markers
Defects in protein citrullination and its consequences in patients with RA have been studied widely in the recent decade. It appears that autoantibodies, including those against citrullinated proteins, are of diagnostic and prognostic relevance.
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FDA Strengthens MI and CVA Risks Associated with NSAIDs
FDA announced yesterday they would strengthen warnings stating that non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke. This applies to both prescription and OTC NSAIDs.
Read ArticleDoes ACPA Increase the Risk of Interstitial Lung Disease?
The anti-citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP or ACPA) antibody assay has a specificity of greater than 90% for rheumatoid arthritis and is associated with worse articular outcomes.
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Neurologic Events with TNF Inhibitor Therapy
Demyelinating disorders are an uncommon complication of TNF inhibition and have been described with all TNF inhibitors but also with other biologics.
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Adalimumab Drug Levels Predict Efficacy
In a prospective study of 311 rheumatoid arthritis patients starting either adalimumab (ADA) or etanercept, investigators sought to correlate drug levels and/or anti-drug antibodies with clinical outcomes (citation source http://url.ie/z237).
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Obesity Drives Rheumatoid Arthritis
Systematic review of the literature examined whether obesity is associated with a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis (citation source http://url.ie/z1y6) and found that obese individuals (BMI > 30) are at
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Utility of Drug Levels and Anti-Drug Antibodies When Starting TNF inhibitors
A prospective cohort of 331 patients tested for anti-adalimumab (n=160) and anti-etanercept (n-171) antibodies after initiation of their TNF inhibitor therapy.
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Adherence to ETN/MTX is Greater Than Triple DMARD Therapy
Rheumatoid management hinges on choosing your best therapies first.
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The History of Citrullination
1998 marked the introduction of citrulline as a unique target in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. The hallmark article by Schellekens et al in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has since been cited over 500 times. Dr.
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Brain Natriuretic Peptide Measurement in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Cardiovascular (CV) risk and adverse cardiac outcomes are common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It has been presumed that chronic systemic inflammation has a deleterious effect on the myocardium and vasculature, thereby leading to higher rates of MI, CHF and CV death.
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Thiazide Diuretics May Reduce Osteoporotic Fracture Risk
A large Swedish cohort study of hypertensive men and women presented at the 25th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension, identitied a protective effect on osteoporotic fractures among current users of thiazide diuretic drugs independent of blood pressure level. This retr
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