Findings from a population based cross-sectional study suggests that while up to 20% of patients have antibodies to tick-borne exposures, only a minority reported musculoskeletal symptoms. 

EULAR has published the 2023 updated recommendations for the optimal non-pharmacological management of hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA).

A study published in Nature suggests that therapies affecting sodium channels could be employed to treat osteoarthritis.

A group of researchers lead by Min Ae Lee-Kirsch from the Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty, TUD Dresden University of Technology (Germany), studied four patients from two families who developed symptoms of SLE in the first years of life.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights, advances and hot topics in rheumatology from 2023 and the RheumNow website.  

2023 was a year of growth and new horizons while returning to operational and practice standards (in care and education) established before the pandemic.  

A cohort study suggest that patients with dermatomyositis (DM) are at an increased risk for multiple comorbidities, including chronic kidney and cardiovascular disease,

A JAMA Dermatology systematic review of drug-induced dermatomyositis (DM) found the most commonly implicated agents include hydroxyurea, immune checkpoint inhibitors, statins and lipid-lowering agents, penicillamine, and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors.

Here is my top 10 list (in no particular order) of 2023 advances, game-changers, and developments that changed, or will soon change, rheumatologic practices.

Early menopause—before the age of 45—taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and having 4 or more children are among several hormonal and reproductive factors linked to a heightened risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women, finds a large long term study published in the open access journal 

Black, Asian, and Hispanic members of the U.S. Armed Forces were far less likely than their white comrades to undergo knee replacement surgeries after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis (OA), military researchers found.

Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Florida’s plan to import certain prescription drugs directly from Canada.  Florida is the first time a state to undertake this pathway to save money.

A Swedish study examine the genetic contribution to various rheumatic/musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) and showed that osteoarthritis (OA) had a large heritability compared with other RMDs.

Dr. Jack Cush imparts his new New Year's Resolutions for 2024 and also reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.

An ultrasound study suggests that enthesitis is associated with both synovitis and tenosynovitis in patients with Psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Curcumin is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat arthritis and is presumed to have analgesic and antiinflammatory effects that may benefit those with osteoarthritis, particularly knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

A clinical trial has shown that obese gout patients will benefit from diet and lowered body weight, but weight loss was not associated with beneficial effects on serum urica acid (SUA), fatigue or pain.

Sarcopenia commonly has been linked to aging and arthritis and contributes significantly to quality of life and outcomes, but the association between sarcopenia and OA has not been well established.

One major subgroup of patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) arising from polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) survived significantly longer when serum levels of interferon-λ3 were relatively low, researchers found.

Retrospective claims analysis shows that psoriasis patients treated with either an IL-12/23 inhibitor or an IL-23 inhibitor had a lower risk of developing incident psoriatic arthritis, compared to TNF inhibitors or IL-17 inhibitors.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews selected AOSD & systemic JIA abstracts from the ACR 2023 Annual meeting held in San Diego, November 12th thru 16th.