Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and regulatory approvals from the past week.

While it is believed that autoimmunity follows autoantibody positivity, a Danish study shows the incidence of polyautoimmunity to be similar in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who are either anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA)–positive or ACPA–negative. 

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Are these associations with infection, biomarkers and weather real or imaginary? Linked or luck? Causal or casual?  You decide....

Despite the availability of numerous advanced therapies for psoriatic arthritis (PsA), there remains a substantial burden and unmet need for improved therapies, according to a newly published Canadian study.

The TARGET (Treatments Against RA and Effect on FDG PET/CT) trial showed that different treatment strategies equally benefited arterial inflammation (by FDG-PET) in rheumatoid arthritis. A subsequent analysis of these patients showed several candidate biomarkers that may correlate with baseline and treatment‐associated changes in arterial inflammation in patients with RA. 

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past 2 weeks on RheumNow.com; but begins with a discussion of what constitutes "immunosuppression" and how it applies to our patients.

The NEJM has published the results of CD19 B cell depletion (by CAR-T cell therapy) in autoimmune disease patients, demonstrating it to be feasible, safe, and efficacious.

Is temporal artery ultrasound equivalent or superior to the reference standard of temporal artery biopsy when diagnosing giant cell arteritis (GCA)?

Dr. Jack Cush answers audience clinical case questions sent by email or "ask Cush anything". Cases and questions from:

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Highlights are summarized by three songs: "Stairway to Heaven", "You're No Good", and "How Long (has this been going on)".

Refractory of difficult to treat (D2T-RA) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) comprises a minority of patients that can be categorized by clinical and imaging parameters to formulate a better therapeutic approach. 

Inflammatory arthritis (IA) is a common manifestation in systemic sclerosis (SSc), affecting nearly one-third of patients.

Approximately 12 million US adults in the US have gout. Two recent literature reports highlight contributors to gout flares.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week we discuss hipsters undergoing hip replacement, pregnancy outcomes in RA and the future of academic clinicians.

Somewhere between 24 and 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease, a condition in which the immune system attacks our own tissues. As many as 4 out of 5 of those people are women.

US commercial insurance claim analysis of laboratory screening and monitoring practices in chronic inflammatory skin disease (CISD) patients shows that < 60% received the recommended pretreatment testing when starting systemic immunomodulatory treatment.

Ultrasound subclinical synovitis is found in a third of individuals at risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients; in half of these, subclinical synovitis resolves with a favorable outcome.