A prospective study of 136 people who were CCP+, but who had no clinical evidence of synovitis, examined what factors may predict future development of inflammatory arthritis.

A systematic review of the literature was done to assess the relationship between immunosuppressive therapy, adult systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the onset of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

Medical Research Council study shows MRI lesions may predict which patients will have more rapidly progressing osteoarthritis. 

Who knows or ponders the articulations (joints) more so than the rheumatologist or orthopedist? We know their anatomy, their contours, tender sites and how to examine them. Adults have over 200 bones and up to 360 joints. Imagine if you had to do a DAS360?

German investigators studied 100 RA patients with a uric acid > 6 mg/dl and assessed them for MSU crystal deposit with dual energy computed tomography (DECT) of both feet and hands.

Joint erosions in RA result from a complex process with multiple contributing mechanisms. One of those mechanisms involves RANK receptor activation by RANKL leading to osteoclast differentiation, activation and survival.

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have shown that >10% weight loss may impact the rate of cartilage loss as determined by MRI scanning.  They presented their findings yesterday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). 

Extraarticular manifestations affect more then half of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and interstitial lung disease or "RA lung" is one of the more prevalent. The frequency of ILD in patients with RA varies from 5% to 58%.

While new recommendations suggest early aggressive management of rheumatoid arthritis, our ability to assess treatment response is limited to clinical and laboratory assessment.

Paine and Ritchlin have reviewed the evidence that new bone formation is centered around enthesial sites and that such findings are evident in psoriatic arthritis as well as psoriasis patients without arthritis.

Dr. Peter Taylor and colleagues presented their results of the 52-week BEAM trial wherein baricitinib (a JAK 1, 2 inhibitor) was compared to adalimumab in both clinical and radiographic outcomes. This was the most viewed abstract online at the ACR website.

A study of 194 knee OA patients received either 1200 mg chondroitin sulfate or celecoxib 200 mg daily, and clinical and MRI outcomes were assessed at 1 and 2 years.

Vertebral fractures are not uncommon in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and spondyloarthritis.

Primary prevention of osteoarthritis is an ideal goal for which there has been little success in clinical trials.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its presence may portend grave outcomes for those affected. The prevalence of ILD in RA ranges from 7.7% to 44% depending on the assessment tools used.

Axial SpA (axSpA) is a chronic inflammatory disease that includes AS and non-radiographic axSpA (nr-axSpA).

A combined rule of five -- the presence of at least five fatty lesions/erosions in the sacroiliac (SI) joint, at least five fatty lesions in the spine, or at least five spinal inflammatory lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- is highly specific for axial spondyloarthritis in patients wi

The experimental bone drug, romosozumab, has succeeded in meeting its primary endpoint by showing it was significantly more effective than teriparatide in a 12-month study assessing total hip bone density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.  

Guermazi and colleagues have investigated whether end-stage knee osteoarthritis (OA), assessed as grade 4 Kellgren and Lawrence (KL) radiographic changes, are really "end stage".   

PNAS has reported the work of an international team of scientists from the University College Dublin and the University of Sheffield, who have studied DNA samples and biopsy samples from joints of over 1,000 rheumatoid arthritis patients in the UK and Ireland and determined the C5orf30 gene to be