Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Should we believe the reviews and metanalyses?

JAMA has published a clinical guideline on the use of vitamin D to prevent disease in children and adults.

In February 2023, an expert consensus panel of pediatric and adult rheumatologists met to address challenges in Still’s disease (SD), including systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis and adult-onset SD. They addressed four main topics: (1) early recognition and diagnosis of SD; (2) pathogenetic pathways and possible biomarkers for diagnosis and response; (3) refractory disease and risk factors, and (4) treatment of SD and its complications.

A nonrandomized, open-label, controlled trial has shown superior efficacy when baricitinib was given at night (instead of day); attesting to the benefits of chronotherapy - selective dosing meant to target the body's diurnal variations.

Symptoms that persist long after Lyme disease is treated are not uncommon — a 2022 study found that 14% of patients who were diagnosed and treated early with antibiotic therapy would still develop Post Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD). Yet doctors puzzle over the condition’s causes and how to help their patients through symptoms ranging from severe fatigue and cognitive challenges to body pain and arthritis.

The British Society of Rheumatology has published its 2025 Guidelines for the Treatment of Axial Spondyloarthritis (axSpA); addressing axial and extra-musculoskeletal manifestations including acute anterior uveitis, psoriasis and IBD.

In a preclinical study led by McGill University researchers, two drugs targeting “zombie cells” have been shown to treat the underlying cause of chronic low back pain.

As organizations representing nearly 60 million adults and children living with arthritis in the United States and the rheumatologists and health care professionals who treat them, we are deeply alarmed by this week’s dismantling of multiple branches of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that manage essential research and public health programs critical to the well-being of millions of people living with chronic conditions. 

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and Journal reports from this week on RheumNow.com.  Osteoarthritis patients have unique risks and synovial fluid WBC numbers can tell you when to worry about septic arthritis in gout and pseudogout patients.

A Nature article details the results of an osteoarthritis, genome-wide association study meta-analyses across up to 489,975 cases and 1,472,094 controls, establishing 962 independent associations, 513 of which have not been previously reported.

A single center, retrospective review of patients undergoing knee joint fluid aspirations for presumed crystalline arthritis (CA) showed that synovial WBC may provide a useful diagnostic marker for SA with an optimal threshold of 50,000 cells/mm3.