Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week - including a few contrary reports on infection, seropositivity and plasmapheresis.

EULAR has updated its treatment recommendations from the prior 2019 guidelines, since which there have been several newly developed agents. The updated guidance includes 7 overarching principles and 11 recommendations regarding treatment strategy and pharmacological therapies.

An expert panel has published their consensus guidelines for the management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and it's comorbidities in the journal Rheumatology. 

A minority of immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) patients treated with rituximab (RTX) are expected to develop and depressed immunoglobulin (Ig) levels.  A recent cohort analysis suggests that RTX-induced Ig deficiency was not associated with an increased risk of severe infecti

Pharma budgets have undergone significant changes coming out of COVID. This year Merck & Co. has knocked Roche from previous years of leading in research and development (R&D) budgets and investments.

Dr. Jack Cush has advice for Caesar and the superstitious, and covers pregnancy, platelets, dialysis and vaccinations in Lupus.

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare but serious condition typically occurring 2–6 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection and characterized by fever and multiorgan involvement.  The current MMWR report shows that MIS-C case numbers have decreased by 98% since 2021.

A trend analysis of DMARDs shows that only half of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients are taking DMARDs, and that the COVID-19 pandemic substantially affected DMARD use. Despite numerous DMARD advances and evolving treatment guidelines since 1990, older therapies are still commonly used and the latest agents make up a small percentage of overall DMARD use.

Last week we reported on a Korean study showing a 66% elevated mortality risk in RA patients (n=38,487) with depression.

Medscape has published an informative review of leflunomide, drawn from Dr. Eric Ruderman’s recent lecture on the subject at the February RWCS meeting in Maui.

JAMA has reviewed the "2022 EULAR Recommendations for the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis With Synthetic and Biological Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs". 

A follow-up analysis of a randomized clinical trial found that the use of calcium and vitamin D supplements among postmenopausal women was associated with decreased risk for cancer mortality, but increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.

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

According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), in 2022, the prevalence of diagnosed arthritis in adults was 18.9% (women 21.5%, more than men 16.1%). These numbers are down since the CDC's MMWR report of 2019–2021, where is was estimated 21.2% of U.S.

In patients with clinically stable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis, the withdrawal of mycophenolate mofetil was not significantly inferior to mycophenolate maintenance, but MMF withdrawal had numerically more reactivations, while MMF maintenance had more infections.

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.

A UK population cohort study has shown that gout carries an increased risk for a wide variety of cardiovascular disorders.