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RheumNow Podcast – Lupus Mortality Declines, But… (6.26.20)
Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com
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Protective Benefit of Colchicine in COVID-19 Infection
Colchicine has been advocated as a potential anti-inflammatory intervention in patients with the coronavirus 2 infection and clinical trials have been developed to assess its effect in early COVID-2 infection. JAMA has published a randomized clinical trial showing that low dose colchicine had less clinical deterioration without significant changes in biomarkers, such as high-sensitivity cardiac troponin and C-reactive protein.
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Hydroxychloroquine Fails as Postexposure Prophylaxis for Covid-19
Add this to the list of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) letdowns in managing COVID-19 treatment or risk - prophylaxis with HCQ fails to prevent COVID-19 infection in those exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
NEJM has reported a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial from the US and Canada wherein adults with household or occupational exposure to someone with confirmed Covid-19 were treated with either placebo or HCQ within 4 days of exposure.
Upside Down with Tocilizumab in COVID-19
Several recent reports offer conflicting views on the potential benefits and adverse outcomes of IL-6 inhibition with tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy in patients with severe COVID-19 infection.
An Italian study grabbed the headlines yesterday with a press release stating TCZ did not improve respiratory symptoms, ICU admissions or mortality rates when given to 126 COVID patients with early disease. The study, supported by the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), stopped enrollment (about 1/3 of projections) after an interim analysis found insufficient evidence that TCZ would be effective. This report has not been published or undergone critical review.
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RheumNow Podcast – Enough Already with Weaning (6.19.20)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.
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Dexamethasone Reduces Mortality in Severe COVID
Preliminary results released today shows dexamethasone (DEX), given to hospitalized, severly ill, COVID-19 patients, is capable of reducing mortality rates by one-third, with researchers calling this a “major breakthrough” in coronavirus management.
The results stem from a UK trial, called the RECOVERY trial, launched in March 2020, compared outcomes of around 2100 patients who were randomly assigned to DEX treatment compared with 4,300 patients not on DEX.
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Virtual EULAR 2020 Round Up
In this week's podcast, Drs. Artie Kavanaugh and Jack Cush present highlights from the virtual EULAR2020 meeting held June 3-6, 2020. Featured reports include the SELECT-CHOICE study, the EXCEED trial, Avacopan in AAV, BeST mortality outcomes, BLISS-LN study, biosimilars and tofa in systemic sclerosis.
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