Dr Jack Cush reviews this week's highlights from RheumNow.com.

Burmester and colleagues have published their review of the long-term outcomes and safety issues with the TNF inhibitor, adalimumab (ADA). The analysis included 15,132 patients exposed to adalimumab in global RA clinical trials.

Pregnancy complications of anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS) have included recurrent abortions, spontaneous fetal loss, preeclampsia, and premature birth. The etiopathogenesis of these events has been presumed to be placental thrombosis or infarction.

Rheumatology News has a novel online report about combined rheumatology-dermatology clinics.  In the last several years, there have been a few of these in operation (Boston, Chicago, Rhode Island).

From tofacitinib developmental trials in RA and psoriasis and adherence to T2T in early RA to a rheumatology pearl about dapsone and much more, here are the highlights of what you may have missed on RheumNow.com this week.

Vitamin D certainly plays a pivotal role in bone health and immune function.

Reuters reports that a study of 6629 Canadian women with osteoporosis taking bisphosphonates found that nearly one in five had a decrease in bone density while on medication. (Citation source: http://buff.ly/2afb7nj) 

SAPHO is an acronym that describes a constellation of findings (synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis) that defines this rare syndrome. 

In the last 6 months, the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee has recommended three biosimilars (CT-P13, GP-2015, ABP-501) for approval, with one achieving FDA approval Inflectra/CT-P13) and the other two pending a probable approval in the months to come.

Porter and colleagues have reported that both rituximab (RTX) and tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi)  are equally and highly effective in early, active, biologic-naive rheumatoid arthritis patients.

The issue of lower intestinal tract perforation (LIP) is no novelty to rheumatologists since the RA treatment paradigm shifted from use of NSAIDs (the most common cause of upper GI tract perforations) to steroids and non-steroidal DMARDs.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights from this week's rheumatology news on RheumNow.com.

The Food and Drug Administration’s Arthritis Advisory Committee yesterday recommended that Amgen biosimilar (ABP 501) to Humira (adalimumab) be approved for use in the United States.  

Systemic lupus is a clinically heterogeneous disorder, unified by requisite clinical features and exuberant humoral response to unknown triggers.  While the diagnosis is easy, the disease course and management can be complicated and challenging.  

Sclerostin, an inhibitor of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, negatively regulates osteoblast differentiation and has anti-anabolic effects on bone formation. Thus, inhibition of sclerostin is currently being studied as therapy for postmenopausal osteoporosis.

The results of the faSScinate trial were published in Lancet showing that treatment with Actemra (tocilizumab) resulted in a reduction in skin thickness and an improvement in lung function in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).

Transforming growth factor (TGF-β) is known to have potent profibrotic activity and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis a futile condition with no effective disease modifying treatments.

A Finnish early RA register studied 14,878 incident RA patients from 2000-2008 and identified 1157 deaths. Patients receiving DMARDs and MTX had lower mortality rates. The standardized mortality ratio for the entire cohort was reduced (0.57, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.62).

I was truly stunned when it was announced that Glenn Frey, from the Eagles, had died as a result of complications from his rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.

Autoimmune ophthalmic disease is a frequent challenge to rheumatologists from both a diagnostic and therapeutic perspective. Approved therapies are limited and have only been infrequently or comfortably utilized by rheumatologists and autoimmune ophthalmologists.