Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news from RheumNow for the week ending 12/21/18.

The NEJM reports that the use of zoledronate significantly reduces the risk of nonvertebral or vertebral fragility fractures in women with osteopenia.

No significant differences in risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) were seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with tofacitinib (Xeljanz) and those receiving tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, analysis of administrative data showed.

Several epidemiological studies have reported that a diagnosis of DM or PM may be associated with increased cancer risk. The association appears stronger for DM than PM.

Lilly has issued an advanced press release on its SPIRIT-H2H trial, wherein ixekizumab (Taltz) was shown to be more effective than than adalimumab (Humira) in a 24 week psoriatic arthritis study.

JAMA Network Open has published that an increasing number of physicians are being excluded from Medicare and other forms of public insurance. 

Another injury related to whole body cryotherapy (WBC) has been reported by practitioners in Philadelphia, serving as yet another warning of WBC's potential to cause serious adverse effects.

The Dec. 12 issue of the National Vital Statistics Reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the most commonly abused drugs causing drug overdose deaths (between 2011-2016) include fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, and cocaine.

When psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients become pregnant, they do not have more infertility or adverse pregnancy outcomes compared to healthy controls.

There is a national shortage of a new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, which is a problem for those who want to start the vaccine and those seeking to receive their second and final injection. 

Johnson & Johnson has announced the preliminary results of its phase 3 ECLIPSE study; a head-to-head trial wherein guselkumab (Tremfya; an IL-23 inhibitor) was compared to secukinumab (Cosentyx; an IL-17 inhibitor) in adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

The risk for cancer in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients has been inconsistently studied.  A new metanalysis shows that SLE has an increased risk for 16 specific cancers and decreased risk for prostate cancer and cutaneous melanoma. 

Sometimes patients withhold information from their doctors, and a new study suggests that as much as 60 - 80% of patients consciously omit information to their doctors, despite knowing this may bear on their health and well-being.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and new journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com:

JAMA has published the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study showing that that, from 2002 to 2016, the US burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) increased, with some states exhibiting more than twice the burden as others.

The Gerontological Society of America has published a report calling for deprescribing as a means of managing polypharmacy in the elderly.

B-cell depletion may offer a means of delaying the onset of clinical arthritis in adults at high risk, according to the PRAIRI study - a proof-of-mechanism study in pre-clinical RA patients. 

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) have released a joint treatment guideline for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) that provides evidence-based pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic recommendations and includes recommendations on other management issues inclu

Researchers from MIT have developed a novel treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) by using dendrimer-based nanocarriers to deliver insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) to chondrocytes within joint cartilage and in animal models have shown when these nanocarriers injected into rat knees in models of O

A systematic review of 81 studies on vitamin D concludes that vitamin D supplementation does not prevent fractures or falls, or have clinically meaningful effects on bone mineral density.