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Bariatric Weight Loss Fails to Alter RA Risk
Obesity has been shown to be a risk factor for the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and also shown to affect outcomes by impairing responses to many DMARD therapies. A Swiss study of RA patients undergoing bariatric surgery failed to show that bariatric surgery and weight loss had any effect on the incidence of RA.
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Which Biologics are Best in Psoriasis
A metanalysis of phase II, III and IV trials in moderate to severe plaque psoriasis suggests comparative efficacy biologic treatments, but that that brodalumab, guselkumab, ixekizumab, and risankizumab-rzaa were shown to have the past skin (PASI) response rates.
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Aspirin after Hip or Knee Arthoplasty
JAMA Internal Medicine has reported that use of low dose aspirin for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis after total hip and knee replacement is equal in efficacy to other anticoagulants.
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Limited Advantage to Very Early vs. Delayed Etanercept in RA
The VEDERA study sought to confirm whether the very early introduction of first-line etanercept+methotrexate (ETN+MTX) was superior to treat-to-target MTX (MTX-TT) in patients with early RA.
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EULAR Recommendations on Sjögren’s Syndrome
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has established an international collaborative group (EULAR SS Task Force) to develop the first EULAR evidence and consensus-based recommendations for the management of patients with Sjogens syndrome (SjS).
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Half of Opioids Rx Come from 1% of MDs
The BMJ reports that while most US providers are cautious in their prescribing, half of opioid prescriptions are written by 1% of providers.
Between 2003 and 2017, there was an annual average of 669495 providers prescribing 8.9 million opioid prescriptions.
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RheumNow Podcast- 2019 EULAR RA Guidelines (1.31.20)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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Hormone Therapy for Postmenopausal Women
The NEJM weighs in on the problem of post-menopausal osteoporosis (OP) and tackles the use of hormonal therapy.
The decline in estrogen after menopause may increase risks for osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive decline. The use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to obviate these issues may be primarily driven by hot flashes in postmenopausal women.1
Who may benefit from hormone therapy among postmenopausal women?
Rheumatoid Arthritis Antibodies Linked With COPD
Women who were seropositive for anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and ultimately went on to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were also at increased risk for being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), analysis of data from the Nurses' Health Study showed.
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NSAIDs May Impair Healing if Taken Nightly
A new study in Scientific Reports suggest that circadian rhythms play an important role in wound healing, and that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may be disruptive if taken at night given primary healing that occurs in a body at night.
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2019 EULAR Recommendations for the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis
The 2019 update to the EULAR recommendations on the use of synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been published in Annals of Rheumatic Disease - highlighting the efforts of an international consensus committee effort.
In the end, the task force put forth 5 overarching principles and 12 recommendations concerning use of conventional synthetic DMARDs, glucocorticoids, biological DMARDs, biosimilar DMARDs, and targeted synthetic DMARDs (the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors tofacitinib, baricitinib, filgotinib, upadacitinib).
RheumNow Podcast- A Good First Impression (1.24.20)
Dr Jack Cush comments on this week's journal articles, reviews and studies.
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QD Clinic - "Doc, When Can I Stop?"
QD Clinic - Lessons from the clinic. In this video: Patients stable on a biologic need guidance on when, and if, they can stop their biologic.
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QD Clinic - Hepatitis B and Biologics
QD Clinic - Lessons from the clinic
Active HBV infection (HGsAg+) on anti-viral therapy but needs a biologic - what should you use?
Biosimilars for Rheum Disease: Failure to Launch
The availability of biologic biosimilars has thus far had negligible impact on prescribing practices in the United States, in stark contrast to what has been observed in some European countries, researchers reported.
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QD Clinic - Dealing with Non-adherence
QD Clinic - Lessons from the clinic. Today’s clinic topic: Dealing with Non-Adherence in the Clinic.
Steroid-Sparing Effect of Tocilizumab in Refractory Takayasu Arteritis
A controlled clinical trial has shown that giving the IL-6 receptor antibody, tocilizumab (TCZ), to patients with Takayasu arteritis (TAK) results in clinical efficacy and has a steroid sparing efffect.
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RheumNow Podcast- The Down Side of Steroids (1.17.20)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the journal reports and news from RheumNow.com.
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NSAID Safety Guidelines
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used for acute or chronic arthritis, headache, visceral pain, postoperative pain, etc but come with a small but significant risk of serious adverse effects, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, kidney injury and GI complica
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TULIP2 - Anifrolumab Succeeds in Lupus
NEJM has published the results of the TULIP2 trial with anifrolumab, an alpha interferon blocker, in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus, showing significant improvement (over placebo) in multiple lupus outcome measures, including BICLA, SRI-4, CLASI and others.
