A real-world rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cohort study from Israel shows significant variability of drug survival using biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatics drugs (bDMARDs) and targeted synthetic DMARDs (tsDMARDs).

The American College of Rheumatology released summaries of two new guidelines for the Screening and Monitoring of Interstitial Lung Disease in People with Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease and for the Treatment of Interstitial Lung Disease in People with Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases.

A recent Wall St. Journal essay (by AB Jena and C Worsham) suggests that a physician’s effectiveness has less to do with age than with how many patients they see and how well they stay up to date on research.

EULAR has published its expert consensus regarding the recommendations for imaging in the most common types of large vessel vasculitis (LVV) -- giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu arteritis (TAK).

Medicare beneficiaries with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) incur frequent bone fractures, a new study indicated, with the risk boosted by some unsurprising factors but also including one that was not expected.

The Lancet reports a new study revealing that the most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis, affects 15% of the global population over the age of 30.

A nested case–control study from the Danish Nationwide Registries finds an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease in the months preceding diagnosis of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV).

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) sine scleroderma is a unique and rare subset of SSc defined by the absence of skin fibrosis. An analysis of the EUSTAR database suggests systemic disease can be a problem, including interstitial lung disease (>40%) and SSc renal crisis (almost 3%). 

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from RheumNow.com this past week.

The IL-23 inhibitor guselkumab was studied in active psoriatic arthritis patients in the phase 3b COSMOS trial, and shown to be clinically effective while reducing multiple effector cytokines, including those associated with the IL-23/IL-17 pathway.

Despite being in a state of remission or low disease activity state, in patients with axial spondyloarthritis, up to 42% may still have residual disease.

The safety of abatacept was studied using patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from 7 European registers, revealing safety signals on par with that previously reported with no new safety concerns. 

In 2023, three marketed biosimilars (Actemra, Stelara, Humira) had their patents expire, opening opportunities for multiple new biosimilars; but with competition comes a word salad of new drug names, confusion and nonsensical discounts.

A pooled analysis of 5 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) shows that the effects of 2 years of low-dose glucocorticoid (GC) treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can significantly increase increase body weight, but not blood pressure.

Monoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (monoJIA) is typically classified under oligoarticular JIA, but a recent study suggests it is a separate entity.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the wonderful wide world of Rheumatology. This week:

In research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, investigators developed and validated a tool called PRESTO that identif

The COLCHICORT trial in patients with acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis (CPPD) demonstrated equivalent efficacy for both colchicine and prednisone, yet different safety signals were seen.

Research from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance included surveys and data gathering from rheumatology patients.

Most rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients 65 and older who had 5 mg/day of prednisolone added to standard care were successfully weaned from the steroid without seeing substantial increases in disease activity, researchers said.