All News
Treat-to-Target Works in Gout With No Cardiac Toxicity
New research presented this week at ACR Convergence, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, shows that allopurinol and febuxostat may effectively lower urate levels when used in a treat-to-target approach. Importantly, both urate-lowering therapies were very effective with 90% of patients reaching target urate levels. Additionally, both appeared safe, with no evidence of increased cardiovascular toxicity (Abstract #1900).
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NOR-DRUM Study: TNF Inhibitor Therapeutic Drug Monitoring is Effective
New research presented this week at ACR Convergence, the American College of Rheumatology’s annual meeting, shows that proactive therapeutic drug monitoring, a newer treatment strategy where a patient’s drug serum levels are regularly assessed to adjust the dose and intervals, controlled disease more effectively than standard therapy with infliximab, a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor.
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Serologically Active, Clinically Quiescent SLE
Lupus management is guided by assessment of both clinical and serologic features; but what happens with the patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) serologically active, but clinically quiescent (SACQ)? A large cohort study shows that nearly one-third of such patients may flare
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RheumNow Podcast – Like Father, Like Daughter (10.29.2021)
Bad things happen when our patients go into the ICU and it's not always due to the disease. Good things happen when we rise from sitting. And guess what? Rheumatologists are setting cardiology straight about hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. This, and a special recognition of parent-child rheumatologists, along with the news and articles from this week on RheumNow.
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Hepatitis B Reactivation with Rituximab and Abatacept
Hepatitis B reactivation is an uncommon complication of biologic therapy use. Now, a serologic study of rheumatoid arthritis patients shows that HBV reactivation is seen with rituximab, and less so with abatacept, especially in patients without hepatitis B antibody (HBsAb) positiv
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Pathways to a Psoriatic Arthritis Diagnosis
Ogdie and colleagues have retrospectively analyzed a longitudinal cohort of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients, showing that only two-thirds of PsA are diagnosed by rheumatologists, PCPs and dermatologists, with significant differences in what preemptive symptoms were noted by different subspecialties.
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High Comorbidity Rates with Inclusion Body Myositis
Inclusion body myositis (IBM) patients tend to be older than those with idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM), but the scope of disease beyond their myositis is not appreciated.
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RheumNow Podcast – Do More DMARDs Mean More Switching? (9.17.2021)
Smartphones and diet; COVID-19 and the numbers - reassuring or not, and what about masks?; and do more drugs mean more switching, less persistence, and patient adherence goes up...or down? All this and more news and journal reports in this week's episode.
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Not All Immunosuppression Alters Vaccine Immunogenicity
Chronic inflammatory disease (CID) patients are urged to receive the COVID-19 vaccines; but when a cohort of CID patients treated with immunosuppressive medications were given an mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, only those treated with glucocorticoids and B cell depleting therapies (B
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ACR Guidance on Timing of 3rd Dose Booster with Immunomodulatory Drugs
The American College of Rheumatology has issued an updated version of its COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Guidance for Patients with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases following recent recommendations from the CDC that certain immunocompromised patients receive a third dose of an availabl
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The Predictive Value of Morning Stiffness
A prospective study evaluated the value and associations with morning stiffness in patients with clinically suspect arthralgia, and found that the presence of morning stiffness increases the odds of inflammation (as detected by CRP and MRI synovitis).
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Rheumatic Events With Checkpoint Inhibitors: Tumor Type Matters
Among the factors that were associated with an increased risk for the development of rheumatic immune-related adverse events following cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) was the type of malignancy involved, a large case-control study found.
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RheumNow Podcast – Driving in Pain (8.20.2021)
You know, I'm a very good driver. We all think we're great drivers - but consider what it's like to drive in pain: would you be a good driver? Also, I want you to consider the diagnosis of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate disease (CPPD). But first, let's look at a study out of Scotland, looking at military service and greater risk of hip and knee replacement.
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Tocilizumab in Refractory Skin and Joint Scleroderma
The interleukin-6 inhibitor, tocilizumab (TCZ), was studied in a cohort of difficult systemic sclerosis (SSc) and was shown to be effective in refractory joint and skin disease with good long-term retention rates and disease stabilization.
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RheumNow Podcast – Saphnelo (Anifrolumab) Approved for Lupus (8.6.2021)
It was a banner week at the FDA; a new drug approval you should know about; a lot of information about pregnancy and safety; and an interesting case plus a question from one of our readers submitted via Back Talk. This and more in this week's podcast. Let's dive in.
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Combo Methotrexate and Leflunomide Safety in RA
Methotrexate and leflunomide (LEF) are the most widely prescribed DMARDs worldwide; yet biologic DMARDs are the newest and best selling agents for rheumatoid arthritis worldwide.
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