All News
EULAR 2024 – Day 4 Report
The final day of EULAR 2024 was rich in posters, Late-breaking oral presentations and EULAR updates and recommendations. Below is a synopsis of the half-day's action.
Read Article
Achieving drug-free remission in axSpA
A clinical trial in early axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) demonstrated sustained inactive disease status in over 60% of patients.
Read Article
Impact of regulatory warning on JAK inhibitors
The development of JAK inhibitors represents an advance for the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. However, the enthusiasm in using this target has waned since the publication of the ORAL surveillance clinical trial in 2022. Subsequently, both the FDA and EMA issued a warning on using JAKi in patients with certain risk factors, e.g., ≥65 years, at increased risk of MACE, current smoker or past smoker and at increased risk of cancer, should other alternative treatment be available. So, how has this warning impacted on JAKi development and use?
Read Article
The art of talking about risks with our patients
On the first day of EULAR 2024, I am debating Janet Pope.
Read Article
Humira Clobbers Biosimilars in Battle for Part D Coverage
Just about every Medicare Part D prescription drug plan on offer this year covers the original version of adalimumab (Humira), whereas only about half will pay for any of the several biosimilar versions currently approved, researchers found.
Read Article
Is Cannabis Safe? (6.7.2024)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews FDA approval, news and journal articles -- and it’s the week before EULAR 2024 in Vienna!!
Read Article
JAK or TNF Inhibitor as First Drug for Rheumatoid Arthritis?
A Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor outperformed tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers for substantially reducing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms in patients for whom conventional anti-rheumatic drugs had failed, a pragmatic head-to-head trial found.
Read Article
2023 EULAR classification criteria for hand osteoarthritis
A EULAR consensus group has established classification criteria for overall hand osteoarthritis (OA) and its subtypes (interphalangeal OA and thumb base OA).
The criteria require two mandatory criteria to be met:
Biologic-treated Psoriasis has Less Progression to Psoriatic Arthritis
A single center study demonstrates that biologic treatment of psoriasis (PsO) significantly reduces the likelihood of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) development; suggesting a role for more aggressive treatment of PsO.
No Great Options for Treating VEXAS
For patients with the auto-inflammatory disease VEXAS, treatment decisions are unfortunately fraught with tradeoffs between effectiveness and risk of adverse effects, a French registry study showed.
Read Article
Lupus Research Alliance Grants for Lupus Innovation
The Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) is proud to announce that nine international researchers are the recipients of this year’s Lupus Innovation Award (LIA).
Read Article
Window of Opportunity in Psoriatic Arthritis
The Dutch southwest Early psoriatic arthritis (PsA) cohort study has demonstrated that the earlier the referral and diagnosis of PsA, the better the outcome.
Upside/Downside of Steroids in Lupus Nephritis
A systematic review of randomized clinical trials of patients with biopsy-proven lupus nephritis (LN) demonstrates both the benefits and harms to early glucocorticoid (GC) regimens on lupus outcomes.
Legal (Not So) Merry-Go-Round of Alendronate Atypical Fractures
Dr. Gregory Curfman, MD (Executive editor of JAMA) writes on the chronological legal progress of a lawsuit stemming from rare instances of atypical femoral fractures associated with bisphosphonate (alendronate) use.
Read Article
Small-molecule Drugs to Treat Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
A metanalysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on treatments of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), confirm the efficacy of several targeted small-molecule drugs.
Systemic Inflammation and Mortality in RA-ILD
Analysis of the German RABBIT registry shows that systemic inflammation, more so than disease activity, strongly influences all-cause mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and prevalent interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).
Read Article
ARCTIC Rewind: Can You Taper DMARDs with Remission?
In an open-label, randomized, non-inferiority trial, rheumatoid arthritis patients in remission were subject to tapering of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and while maintenance of remission was seen in some, many DMARD tapering patients did flare and were unable to maintain flare-free survival compared to those on stable conventional synthetic DMARDs.
Read Article
Predicting CKD Outcomes in Lupus Nephritis
An observational cohort study suggests that proteinuria levels in lupus nephritis (LN) patients did not predict their histologic class.
A multicentre observational study of patients with biopsy-proven LN; either proliferative (PLN) or membranous (MLN) lupus nephritis were compared regarding clinical and laboratory presentation and long-term outcomes. The primary outcome was progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Self Acupressure in Knee Osteoarthritis
A clinical trial has shown that self-administered acupressure (SAA) is effective in relieving knee osteoarthritis (KOA) patients.
Read Article