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.

Currently there are no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of digital ulcerations in the United States.  Digital ulcers are a common, unfortunate and difficult to manage consequence of the vascular obliteration and fibrosis that accompanies systemic sclerosis.

RheumNow is committed to reporting safety issues in our monthly Drug Safety Bulletins. Each month we will update you with reports of new, ongoing and resolved Drug Shortages that will affect the practicing rheumatologist.

An Israeli crossover trial analyzed the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in 60 patients with fibromyalgia.

A large ACP survey of over 18,000 US internal medicine residents shows they often incorporate cost of care in discussions and decisions, but may not know the data (citation source http://buff.ly/1KeLq0D).

A survey of internists and family practitioners shows that half of physicians are unaware of how opioids are abused.

Using Medicaid data from 2000-2006, 9,600 hydroxychloroquine new users were compared to 3,829 new users of immunosuppressive agents (IS) in patients with SLE. They assessed adherence using the MPR - the medication possession ratio.

Rheumatoid management hinges on choosing your best therapies first.

Biosimilars are copies of the biologic medicines used to treat inflammatory and immunologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and cancer- potentially at lower costs.

The National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence has turned down Otezla for coverage under the U.K. healthcare system for psoriatic arthritis.

Using ultrasound guided intraarticular injection of the hip, 98 OA of the hip patients were randomized to receive IA ketorolac or triamcinolone. At, 1, 3, and 6 mos pain scale and Harris hip scores were improved equally in both groups with no statistical differences.

A large Swedish cohort study of hypertensive men and women presented at the 25th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension, identitied a protective effect on osteoporotic fractures among current users of thiazide diuretic drugs independent of blood pressure level.  This retr

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis carries a high mortality rate and can be a management challenge. Moreover, exacerbations of IPF may be fatal. A multicenter uncontrolled study examined the utility of targeting autoantibody production with revealed surprising results.

A Canadian registry shows that in community-based infusion clinics, infusion reactions to IFX are uncommon and mild to moderate in nature.

Biologic Use Curtails Sepsis Events. An analysis of the German biologics register, RABBIT, examined the effect of current biologic therapy on future risk of sepsis (#OP0161).

The FDA has issued public warnings that 4 over-the-counter products promoted for pain relief contain potentially harmful, undeclared dexamethasone. The supplements are Asihuri Plus Forte, Ginseng She Lian Wan, Jianbu Huqian Wan, and Saurean Fong Sep Lin.

When gastroenterologists responded to a nationwide survey regarding their management of GERD and contipation, half of the 830 gastroenterology respondents (23% response rate) prescribed for their patients OTC proton-pump inhibitors (PPI), 13% recommended an OTC histamine-2&nbs

These abstracts and presentations were presented last week on the 12th and 13th of June at the EULAR 2015 annual meeting in Rome.

Varicella-zoster virus infection was studied in temporal artery biopsies from those suspected of having giant cell arteritis.