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10 Ways Rheumatoid Arthritis Could’ve Killed Glenn Frey
I was truly stunned Monday when it was announced that Glenn Frey, from the Eagles, had died as a result of complications from his rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
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DSB Reports & Updates - January 2016
Comparative Harmful Risks with Targeted Immunomodulators. Desai et al did a systematic review of the literature, findings of 10 head-to-head RCTs and 51 observational studies.
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Increasing Hospitalization Rates for Shingles in Lupus
An administrative claims study of lupus patients drawn from the United States National Inpatient Sample between 2000 to 2011, studied hospitalization rates related to bacteremia, pneumonia, opportunistic fungal infection, herpes zoster, cytomegalovirus, or pneumocystis pneumonia (P
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Preventing Hepatitis B Reactivation Due to Immunosuppressive Drug Treatments (Best of 2015)
Reactivation of hepatitis B virus infection can have devastating consequences, especially amongst those patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy.
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Chikungunya Spread Continues (Best of 2015)
The spread of the viral infection Chikungunya continues with the CDC issuing a travel advisory for those traveling to Mexico, where over 7000 cases of the viral infection have been reported.
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Should Lupus Patients Receive Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccines? (Best of 2015)
Barry Waters, MD*: I have a 21 yr old lupus nephritis patient on mycophenolate, hydroxychloroquine and prednisone 40 mg per day.
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Herpes Zoster Increases the Risk of Stroke and MI
At the 2015 ACR annual meeting in San Francisco, Len Calabrese, DO, of the Cleveland Clinic, gave a plenary session talk linking "shingles" infection to an increased risk of CVA (
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CDC Reports Increases in Tularemia
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a sharp rise in tularemia, especially in Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
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DSB: ACR 2015 Safety Reports
The following is a compilation of abstracts presented at the 2015 Annual ACR meeting in San Francisco. These were chosen on the basis of impact, quality and safety message.
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Opioid Use Ups the Risk of Hospitalized Infections in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Researchers from Vanderbilt University have studied the issue of opioid use in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and whether this influences infection risk.
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Surviving Infection on DMARDs or Biologics
Sepsis is a dangerous and potentially fatal consequence of serious infections (SIE), particularly in susceptible populations such as the elderly and immunosuppressed. Published evidence points toward the potential role of TNF in development of sepsis.
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Increasing Risk of Septic Arthritis with Age
A retrospective population-based study from New Zealand examined the epidemiology, clinical features, and microbiology of adult native joint septic arthritis.
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Toxoplasma Infections in the Immunosuppressed
In the USA, toxoplasmosis is the second leading cause of foodborne illness–related death and hospitalization, with >300 deaths and 4000 hospitalizations each year [2]; 4800 people develop visual loss yearly secondary to the parasite.
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Increased Risk of Shingles with Inflammatory Myositis
A study from the Taiwan National Health Insurance examined 2023 patients with new diagnoses of dermatomyositis or polymyositis and population controls and examined the frequency of Herpes zoster.
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Shingles Vaccine Not Cost-Effective in Those Under 60
The herpes zoster (HZ- shingles) vaccine was FDA approved for use in individuals over age 50 years. However, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended it only be used in those over age 60 years.
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Drug Safety Reports & FDA Updates – August 2015
Safety reports from literature include long-term safety of rituximab, rituximab-induced neutropenia, tabalumab (Anti-BAFF Mab) results from the ILLUMINATE trial, colchicine toxicity increased in CKD patients, FDA updates and drug labeling changes, and more.
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Serious Infections Increased in Etanercept-Treated Juvenile Arthritis Patients
UK researchers set out to study medically significant infections (MSI) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients enrolled in the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Etanercept Cohort Study (BSPAR-ETN).
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Hospitalized Infections are Higher with the Second Biologic
Using Medicare claims data on 189,326 RA patients, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the rates of hospitalized infections in previously biologic-treated RA patients and compared rates in cohorts starting new treatment with etanercept, adalimumab, certolizum
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Fasenmyer Grant to Calabrese and Lederman Will Further the Interface Between Rheumatology and Virology
Two longtime collaborators studying HIV/AIDS at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University have received an $18.5 million grant from the Richard J. Fasenmyer Foundation.
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