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Gout: New Classification Criteria from ACR/EULAR
The American College of Rheumatology and the European League against Rheumatism joined forces to finalize classification criteria for gout, a condition that affects 8.3 million Americans.
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A Controlled Trial of Yoga Benefits Arthritis Patients
Yoga and stretching appear to be important forms of exercise for patients with fibromyalgia, but their utility has seldom been explored in patients with rheumatoid or osteoarthritis.
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Monitoring of Novel Therapies in Rheumatology
The rheumatology therapeutic landscape has changed almost yearly in the last 15 years, with the introduction of at least 16 biologic or novel agents for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), spondyloarthritis (SpA), juvenile arthritis,
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FDA Warns of Bone Fracture Risk and Lower BMD with Diabetes Drug
The FDA has strengthened its warnings for the type 2 diabetes drug canagliflozin (Invokana, Invokamet) and the apparent increased risk of bone fractures, and added new information about decreased bone mineral density.
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Antibodies to 14-3-3η Found in Large Vessel Vasculitis
14-3-3η (eta) is a new test that may be useful in diagnosing patients with early rheumatoid arthritis. The test is 77% sensitive and 93% specific for RA and developers have found that antibodies against 14-3-3η may correlate with drug responsiveness.
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Arthritis and Poverty: Chicken or Egg?
The development of arthritis is an underappreciated reason why individuals become impoverished -- a finding that was particularly pronounced for women, an Australian study found.
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JIA Pathogenesis Related to Neutrophils and Epigenetics
Neutrophils are pivotal players in the innate immune response, but are seldom linked to the pathogenesis of inflammatory arthritis, including juvenile idiopathic inflammatory arthritis (JIA).
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Obesity Protects Men from Rheumatoid Arthritis
Researchers from Malmo, Sweden have analyzed data from 383 patients, taken from two population based health surveys with a total of 50,705 participants, and found there is a strong association between a high BMI in men and a lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
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Drug Safety Reports & FDA Updates – August 2015
Safety reports from literature include long-term safety of rituximab, rituximab-induced neutropenia, tabalumab (Anti-BAFF Mab) results from the ILLUMINATE trial, colchicine toxicity increased in CKD patients, FDA updates and drug labeling changes, and more.
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SCOT Study Shows NSAID Safety
Since the 2005 FDA hearing that resulted in the removal of Vioxx and Bextra from the US market, the safety of nonselective NSAIDs (nsNSAIDs) and selective Cox-2 inhibitors (e.g., celecoxib) has been repeatedly questioned, often without new or substantive data.
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Hospitalized Infections are Higher with the Second Biologic
Using Medicare claims data on 189,326 RA patients, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the rates of hospitalized infections in previously biologic-treated RA patients and compared rates in cohorts starting new treatment with etanercept, adalimumab, certolizum
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C5orf30 Gene is a Negative Regulator of Tissue Damage in Rheumatoid Arthritis
PNAS has reported the work of an international team of scientists from the University College Dublin and the University of Sheffield, who have studied DNA samples and biopsy samples from joints of over 1,000 rheumatoid arthritis patients in the UK and Ireland and determined the C5orf30 gene to be
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Early RA and the Chance of DMARD-Free Remission
Early and aggressive treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has become the mantra for most who manage the disease and hope to achieve optimal outcomes - including remission.
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Cancer Risk Is Both Increased and Decreased in RA
Rheumatoid arthritis patients are often said to have no or a low risk of cancer.
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Priorities for NIAMS Research Funding
Dr. Steven Katz describes how NIAMS sets priorities for investing congressionally-appropriated funds.
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Long-Term Safety of Rituximab
Rituximab has been used for years with good efficacy, but with several safety concerns. Van Vollenhoven and colleagues have published the cumulative clinical trial safety experience of RTX wherein 3595 patients 1–20 (average - 4) courses over 11 years [14,816 patient-years (PY)].
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Specialty Society Guidelines Must Evolve to Improve
The current JAMA issue examines the process and potential flaws of society clinical practice guidelines -a timely commentary as we await the 2015 ACR RA treatment guidelines first presented at the 2014 ACR meeting in Boston and slated for upcoming publication in Arthritis & Rheumatology
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Osteoporosis Affects One-Quarter US Women Over 65 Years
The CDC has released data from the NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) analysis of 2005-2010 data regarding the population frequency of osteoporosis and osteopenia.
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Hypothyroidism is Increased in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
In a study that compared seropositive (RF+, CCP+) and seronegative RA with healthy participants, the frequency of thyroid antibodies was assessed.
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DSB: Managing Methotrexate Toxicity
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.
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