Safety Concerns Offset the Modest Improvements of Tanezumab in Osteoarthritis

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JAMA reports that although tanezumab is modestly effective in moderate to severe osteoarthritis (knee or hip), with statistically significant improvements in pain and physical function, the tanezumab (TNZ) treated patients had more joint safety events and total joint replacements than pa

Pregnancy Outcomes Improve in Lupus

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Pregnancy for patients with lupus has long been considered high risk and associated with both medical and obstetric complications, but outcomes have improved over the last 2 decades and continue to improve. The large decline in in-hospital maternal mortality was greater for lupus pregnancies than for non-lupus pregnancies. Findings from a retrospective cohort study are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Opioids Overused in Acute Gout

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Opioids were commonly given to patients as a treatment for acute gout attacks, despite the availability of other effective and appropriate therapies, a retrospective study found.

Benefits vs Harms for Osteoporosis Drug Continuation or Discontinuation

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While it is clear that long-term bisphosphonate therapies reduce fracture risk in women with osteoporosis, it is unclear how to counter-balance these benefits against rare serious harms and how to optimize therapeutic benefits with appropriate drug holidays.

A systematic analysis of 48 studies compared long-term osteoporosis drug treatment (ODT) (>3 years) versus control versus ODT continuation versus durg discontinuation, to examine incident fractures or harms.

Be ‘on point’: Guidelines for rheumatic complications of immunotherapy

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Editor's note: July 1 - 5, RheumNow is running the best of the EULAR 2019 meeting. At EULAR 2019, Madrid, several recommendations including RA, SLE, and Sjogren’s syndrome have been developed. Agreement for principles with respect to the treatment of immune mediated adverse events from cancer immunotherapy are lacking.

RheumNow Podcast – EULAR 2019 Streamin' - (6.14.19)

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Editor's note: July 1 - 5, RheumNow is running the best of the EULAR 2019 meeting. Dr. Jack Cush reports from Madrid on several novel presentations from EULAR 2019, including low-dose steroids in hand OA, ABA vs. ADA in double positive RA patients, psoriasis predictors of PsA, tildrakizumab and more.

Allopurinol Fails to Curtail Hypertension

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Editor's note: July 1 - 5, RheumNow is running the best of the EULAR 2019 meeting. A novel trial presented at EULAR 2019 last week assessed whether the use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) would control hypertension in those at risk; however, results of this trial were largely negative.

EULAR 2019 Report – Day 2

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Editor's note: July 1 - 5, RheumNow is running the best of the EULAR 2019 meeting. It was a full and lively second day in Madrid with sessions dedicated to Lupus, RA, Sjogren’s, imaging, rare diseases, psoriatic arthritis and spondyloarthritis. Here are a few of the highlights from day two at EULAR 2019.

Blinded by the Use of Antimalarials in Lupus?

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Editor's note: July 1 - 5, RheumNow is running the best of EULAR 2019 meeting. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) will decrease SLE flares improve lipids, decrease clots, improve survival, augment the response to mycophenolate and are the cornerstone of treatment as per the SLE EULAR gui

CAM Use is Common in Psoriasis

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The July issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology reports that patients with psoriasis are frequent users of complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) largely because of disatisfaction with traditional medications.

RheumNow Podcast – Prevalence of Methotrexate Toxicities (6.28.19)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Mortality from Falls in the Elderly

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JAMA reports that there is a trend of increasing mortality from falls in older US adults between 2000 to 2016 and that mortality rates are increased with increasing age. 

DMARD Success in Myositis-Related Interstitial Lung Disease

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It is estimated that up to 50% of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy will be complicated by interstitial lung disease, and having ILD may impart a poor prognosis. A recent review of the Johns Hopkins myositis-related ILD cohort has shown that azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil use is associated improved lung function and less prednisone use.

Study Looks at Opioid Use After Knee Surgery

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A small study looked at whether reducing the number of opioid tablets prescribed after knee surgery would reduce postoperative use and if preoperative opioid-use education would reduce it even more

Allopurinol Fails to Curtail Hypertension

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A novel trial presented at EULAR 2019 last week assessed whether the use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) would control hypertension in those at risk; however, results of this trial were largely negative.

Hypertension is one of the many comorbidities that plagues gout patients.

Is Methotrexate Necessary with Tofacitinib?

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Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking tofacitinib (Xeljanz) plus methotrexate who achieved low disease activity (LDA) may be able to withdraw from the latter agent without significant worsening of disease activity, a researcher reported at EULAR 2019 in Madrid.

EULAR 2019- Day 4 Report

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Saturday June 15th was the last half-day at EULAR 2019 but was highlighted by the “late-breaking” (LB) presentations that were presented from the podium and by poster.

Below are the top “LB” presentations from EULAR this year:

Understanding Non-arthritic Rheumatic iRAEs

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A better understanding of rheumatic immune-related adverse event phenotypes beyond inflammatory arthritis has been furthered by work from three abstracts presented at EULAR 2019 in Madrid.

Blinded by the Use of Antimalarials in Lupus?

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Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) will decrease SLE flares improve lipids, decrease clots, improve survival, augment the response to mycophenolate and are the cornerstone of treatment as per the SLE EULAR guidelines presented at EULAR 2019 in Madrid and also published in ARD.

RheumNow Podcast – EULAR 2019 Streamin' - (6.14.19)

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Dr. Jack Cush reports from Madrid on several novel presentations from EULAR 2019.

1. Genovese Vagal nerve stimulator in RA