Years of IL-17 vs. IL-23 debate in PsA finally got tested head-to-head: bimekizumab outperformed risankizumab on joint outcomes in the BE BOLD trial, while a GLP-1 combination study suggests weight and metabolic status are active drivers of PsA — not just comorbidities. This recap also digs into early signals that biologic choice may influence whether psoriasis progresses to PsA, and why some well-controlled patients are still in pain.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal articles and Gout features from this past week on RheumNow.com.

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) was disappointed that the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) once again included a serious cut to the conversion factor.

While the link between uric acid and gout was first described by Alfred Baring Garrod in the 1800s, the proof that uric acid might actually be the cause had to await the self-experimentation of two rheumatologists from the University of Pennsylvania. Given some comments that the presence of urate crystals in synovial fluid might just be a bystander phenomenon, they decided to inject monosodium urate crystals in one knee and water in the other, and both suffered severe attacks of gout in the urate crystal injected knee.