Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com.  This week we delve into some odd associations, repeat drug warnings and the consequences of antirheumatic therapies.

Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) techniques show the presence of bacterial DNA in surgical specimens of hip and knee arthritis, from patients undergoing first-time total joint arthroplasty, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. 

Opportunistic and chronic infections may be rare and are often difficult to diagnose, especially in patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIIRD), that may be immunocompromised.

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) can be a life-threatening infection in immunocompromised patients. The 2023 EULAR Vasculitis guidelines recommends primary prophylaxis with antibiotics, especially in rheumatic disease patients receiving rituximab (RTX).

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports and addresses 3 viewer case questions.

This week on the podcast Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, regulatory announcements and novel journal reports including a profile on pseudogout, the safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors in RA patients and the diagnostic importance of neutrophils.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com, including Rheumatology success in the NRMP MATCH, Cocaine vasculitis and worrisome safety risks with Biologics and tsDMARDs.

Having their clinics shut down and patients staying away during the COVID-19 pandemic was bad enough for physicians' finances, but now a new study finds that, at least for rheumatologists, payments from industry dried up as well.

This week on the podcast, Dr. Jack Cush recalls what life was like early on during COVID, from March to June of 2020.  During this time, his close friend, Larry, contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized, intubated and put on mechanical ventilation for nearly 2 months.

Dr. Jack Cush Reviews the News and Journal articles from the past week on RheumNow. This weeks highlights includes insights on scleroderma, myositis, vasculitis and answers the question - does aggressive biologic treatment of psoriasis prevent future psoriatic arthritis?

Periodontal disease (PD) is more common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), especially those with anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs).  RA activity has been linked to the severity of PD and mucosal inflammation.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and tries to stump the expert panel this week on the podcast.

Safety outcomes for targeted synthetic or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/ts DMARDs) used to treat RA were studied using data from the Anti-Rheumatic Therapies in Sweden (ARTIS) registry, showing that these newer agents are largely similar, but still have particular differences for specific infection or other adverse event risks.

Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older with lupus faced dramatically higher mortality when they received no follow-up care during the month after a hospital stay, researchers found.