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FDA Slaps a Boxed Warning on Febuxostat for CV Risk
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed data from the Cardiovascular Safety of Febuxostat and Allopurinol in Patients with Gout and Cardiovascular Morbidities (CARES) trial and concluded there is an increased risk of death with Uloric (febuxostat) compared with allopurinol, and has added this as a boxed warning to the drug’s product label.
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RheumNow Podcast - Death and Surgery (2-22-19)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com:
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Lupus Microbiome May Drive Disease Activity
Silverman and colleagues have published their study of the fecal microbiome of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and found roughly five times more gut bacteria known as Ruminococcus gnavus, and that these abnormalities in microbiota can correlate with measures of disease severity i
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Impressive Survival of Interleukin-1 Inhibitors in Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
The drug retention rate of interleukin-1 inhibitors (IL-1) used to treat systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) appears to be quite high according to a new study.
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Safety Warnings for Higher Dose Tofacitinib
Pfizer has issued a press release regarding the safety of tofacitinib, citing higher rates of pulmonary embolism and death associated with the use of higher dose tofacitinib 10mg bid in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated in a long-term safety trial.
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Remission Unlikely in RA
Dr. Marwan Bukhari (editor of Rheumatology) has written an editorial wherein he suggests that true remission is hard to achieve. He notes that "remission as a target is a noble objective that we should all aspire to but we should not chastise our practice if we do not achieve it, as more and more evidence suggests that we should consider it the ideal but not the norm."
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Older Men Less Likely to be Assessed and Treated for Osteoporosis
A study from the University of Washington in Seattle find that men with osteoporosis were less likely to be assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); vitamin D measurements and were less like to receive calcium/vitamin D and bisphosphonate prescriptions.
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No Added Benefit to MRI-Guided Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis
A treat-to-target (T2T) strategy to manage rheumatoid arthritis hinges on clinical metrics to optimize therapy. But investigators from Denmark have shown that using magnetic resonance imaging–guided T2T failed to improve disease activity remission rates or reduce radiographic progression.
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SEAM-PsA Study - Does Monotherapy MTX Win Despite Losing to Etanercept in Psoriatic Arthritis?
The SEAM-PsA study examined the efficacy of methotrexate monotherapy, etanercept monotherapy or the combination of MTX and ETN in psoriatic arthritis patients, and found that ETN monotherapy was equivalent to combination therapy - and that both were superior to MTX alone in clinical (ACR and MDA) and radiographic responses.
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HHS Issues New EHR Record Sharing Rule
WASHINGTON -- Patients would have access to their electronic health records free of charge and would be able to transfer them more easily from one provider to another under rules proposed Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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RheumNow Podcast – Downside of Lupus (2.9.19)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's news and reports from RheumNow.com:
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Biologic High Out of Pocket Costs for Medicare Patients
Specialty tier drugs, including biologics, accounts for nearly half of all medication spending by Medicare Part D patients. High out-of-pocket costs for these patients is a major concern.
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Compounded Pain Creams - Expensive Placebos?
The Annals of Internal Medicine reports that the growth and use of compounded pain creams is unwarranted as they were no better than placebo in a randomized controlled trial, suggesting their higher costs are unjustifiable compared to other topical commercially available agents (lidocain
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Low IBD Risk with Secukinumab
The interleukin-23 (IL-23)/IL-17 axis plays an important role in inflammation and infection. Some of these chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disorders include PsO, PsA, AS, and IBD. Patients with PsO, PsA, and AS have up to a four-fold risk of developing IBD versus the general population.
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Ixekizumab and Complete Resolution of Enthesitis and Dactylitis
IL-17 inhibitors have proven to be effective in psoriatic arthritis. Analyses of ixekizumab-treated PsA patients with enthesitis or dactylitis shows this approach to yield significant improvements in enthesitis and dactylitis.
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Vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty Shown to Be Ineffective
There are approximately 750,000 new vertebral compression fractures each year in the United States, with resultant acute and chronic back pain in over one‐third of patients with vertebral fractures (VF). Both percutaneous vertebroplasty or balloon kyphoplasty have been advocated as useful m
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Multidisciplinary Recommendations for Rheumatoid Foot Problems
Approximately 90% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have foot problems.
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RheumNow Podcast – TNFs and the Inflammasome (1.25.19)
Dr Jack Cush reviews the news from the past week at RheumNow.com.
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Obesity Needs to be Treated in Psoriatic Arthritis
Obese patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who followed a short-term, very low-energy diet showed improvements in multiple aspects of disease activity, a prospective study found.
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Does Seropositivity Change with Therapy?
A subanalysis of the early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) "IMPROVED" study has shown that changes in RA-autoantibody levels are not associated with disease activity or or long-term drug response, but instead reflect intensity of immunosuppression.
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