Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal articles and regulatory decisions from the past week from RheumNow.com. This week focuses on parodoxical psoriasis, scleroderma outcomes and subsets, and alopecia areata therapy.

The hallmark of systemic sclerosis is scleroderma, but less than 10% of SSc patients have sine scleroderma (ssSSc). A EUSTAR database review compared the manifestations and outcomes of ssSSC to limited cutaneous SSc and diffuse cutaneous SSc.

A randomised controlled trial including 347 participants with lower back or neck pain found there was no benefit of taking opioid pain relievers compared to placebo. 

A large, retrospective, multinational study of patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) shows they may be at risk for cardiovascular events (CVEs).

Editor's Note: please note the error in the original report has been corrected to read: UCB affirms there are no open information requests from the FDA regarding the BLA for bimekizumab or bimekizumab manufacturing.

Recurrent bouts of systemic lupus erythematosus, marked by the body’s immune system attack of its own tissues, closely tracked with measurable upticks in growth in the gut of a certain species of bacteria.

A multicenter cohort study reported a large cohort of pediatric patients receiving TNF inhibitor therapy complicated by psoriasis, regardless of treatment indication or the specific TNF inhibitor.

Obesity carries many risks, now a new study in Arthritis & Rheumatology shows that higher body mass index (BMI) increases the risk for several rheumatic diseases, especially in women for both gout and psoriatic arthropathy. 

A phase 2 trial has demonstrated the efficacy of secukinumab, an anti-interleukin-17A monoclonal antibody, in patients with active giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week a new colchicine FDA approval, rising rate of IgG4 related disease and what's the safest biologic?

About 60% of adults aged 18 and over reported taking at least one prescription medication in 2021, with 36% reporting taking three or more. Out-of-pocket costs on retail drugs rose 4.8% to $63 billion in 2021.

The FDA has approved colchicine (Lodoco) for cardiovascular prevention in adults with established atherosclerotic disease or multiple risk factors, making it the first anti-inflammatory medicine with such an indication.

An analysis of a large rheumatoid arthritis cohort sheds light on biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) clustering that may be used in management, as certain clusters of b/tsDMARD correlated with disease activity over time. 

While it is known that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients may be at risk for certain cancers, the question is which cancers and is this modified by therapy.

A multinational registry analysis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving abatacept (ABA) has shown that the safety profile of ABA remains unchanged with no new or increased risks of infection or malignancy.

New recommendations on imaging for crystal-induced (gout, CPPD) arthritis (CiA) were presented at EULAR 2023 in Milan.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com, including new drug approval, a new SpA variant and new rules for methotrexate (MTX) monitoring and depression screening. 

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today expressed disappointment that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has recommended yet another cut to physician reimbursement for infusing life-altering treatments as part of its June 2023 Report to the Congress: Medicare and the Healt

A Korean study of a large systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) cohort shows by genomic analysis, that higher weighted genetic risk scores (wGRS) is associated with earlier SLE onset, higher anti–Sm antibody positivity, lupus nephritis and more diverse lupus manifestations.