Long-Term Safety of Rituximab

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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)].

Specialty Society Guidelines Must Evolve to Improve

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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

Osteoporosis Affects One-Quarter US Women Over 65 Years

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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.

Hypothyroidism is Increased in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

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In a study that compared seropositive (RF+, CCP+) and seronegative RA with healthy participants, the frequency of thyroid antibodies was assessed.

DSB: Managing Methotrexate Toxicity

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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.

Rituximab Induced Neutropenia

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In reviewing submitted abstracts for the 2014 ACR meeting, I was surprised by several abstracts focusing on neutropenia in patients receiving rituximab.

CV Risk in RA: Is a New Measurement Tool the Answer?

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A new expanded cardiovascular (CV) risk calculator for use in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been developed to take into account disease-specific factors that can worsen risk, researchers reported.

Bidirectional Association Between Uveitis and Psoriatic Disease

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A Danish population, claims-based study studied the the associations between 74,129 patients with incident psoriasis and 13,114 with incident uveitis between 1997 and 2011.

NSAIDs are Risky in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

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Little is known about what happens when NSAIDs are used in patients with chronic kidned disease (CKD), especially those with hypertension.

Lipid Levels and CV Events in RA

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Rheumatoid arthritis not only affects the joints but can also increase risk for cardiovascular disease. The mechanism of the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis remains uncertain.

Men and Blacks Undertreated for Osteoporosis

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Using claims data from 36,965 patients in an Indiana database, researchers found women (OR 1.86) and non-black patients (OR 1.52) were more likely to be treated (p<0.001) for osteoporosis.

Gut Dysbiosis in RA Reflects Activity, Serology and Response

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Using a metagenome-wide association study (MGWAS) of fecal, dental and salivary samples from rheumatoid arthritis and healthy controls, Zhang et al showed that gut and oral microbiomes are highly concordant and that in RA there is a distinct dysbiosis with less Haemophilus spp.

2015 Guidelines for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

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Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing form of interstitial pneumonia, with poor survival rates of nearly 50% at 3 years.

Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Have an Increased Risk of Gout

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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).

Outcry Over the Cost of Drugs

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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.

DSB: Drug Shortages July 2015

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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

Increasing Age May Increase Miscarriage Risk in RA

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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.

Does Antibiotic Exposure Increase the Risk of JIA?

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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.

DSB Reports & Updates – July 2015

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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