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Lipid Levels and CV Events in RA
Rheumatoid arthritis not only affects the joints but can also increase risk for cardiovascular disease. The mechanism of the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis remains uncertain.
Read ArticleIs Morning Stiffness Important?
Morning stiffness? An oft-asked question, but does it have reliable discriminatory value?
Read ArticleNot All Placebos are Equal: The Needle is Mightier than the Pill
Placebos are necessary to determine the “true effect” of any medical intervention. As such, they have become the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine, randomized controlled clinical trials and novel drug development.
Read ArticleWhat's Your Diagnosis? Truncal Rash, Arthritis and +ANA
An 80 year old woman complains of 3 months of rash on her back. It is modestly pruritic. The lesions are both annular and papular appearing over her back, torso and upper arms. She also complains of pain and swelling in her fingers.
Read ArticleTacrolimus Tops Other DMARDs as Induction Therapy for Lupus Nephritis
Metanalysis of nine clinical trials and 972 lupus patients examined the comparative efficacy of tacrolimus, mycophenolate (MMF) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) as induction therapy for lupus nephritis.
Read ArticleLong term Denosumab Use Shows Favorable Outcomes: Results from the FREEDOM Extension Trial
Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by increased bone loss that outpaces the grown of new bone. As a result bones become less dense and more fragile and brittle; porous bones are more prone to fracture.
Read ArticleWomen Paid Less as Consultants to Pharma... Again?
Historically, women’s salaries have lagged behind their male colleagues. Women are less likely to achieve leadership roles or be full professors at academic institutions.
Read ArticleDSB Reports & Updates – July 2015
FDA Scours the Internet for Safety Signals. A Bloomberg News report shows how the FDA is using Google or Yahoo keyword searches to identify new safety signals or drug interactions, often more than a year before they were brought to light by the FDA based on prior methodologies de
Read ArticleThe Use of Non-TNF Biologic Treatments in Uveitis Reviewed
A systematic review of treatments used in autoimmune chronic uveitis after failure of DMARDs and at least one TNF inhibitor identified few patients (12 children and 34 adults), and few trials examining rituximab (3), abatacept (3), tocilizumab (3), and 1 each with alemtuzumab and anakin
Read ArticleIRB Conflicts of Interest Persist
Committees at academic institutions that make decisions on research and clinical trials may be conflicted, as nearly one-third of IRB members have some ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Read ArticleThe Differential Diagnosis of Heel Pain
A slim, yoga bending, middle aged school teacher seeks a rheumatology consultation to determine the cause and cure for her left lateral heel pain for the past 6 months. No trauma, no crazy footwear and no systemic symptoms, uveitis, or peripheral/axial arthritis.
Read ArticleHealth Canada Issues Acetaminophen Advisory
Yesterday Health Canada announced it “is taking additional steps to minimize the risk of liver damage and improve acetaminophen safety,” citing the findings of a government review that underscored the possibility of accidental overdose.
Read ArticleGet Ready for ICD-10
With three months until the switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding, CMS and the AMA have announced efforts to continue to help physicians get ready ahead of the October 1 deadline.
Read ArticleRheumatology Leads the List in Drug Company Engagements
Based on recently released data, ProPublica.org has compiled a list of pharmaceutical payments made to 606,000 US physicians in the last year. Their analysis turned up big differences between the different specialties.
Read ArticleWhat's Your Diagnosis? Hand Arthritis in 57 year old Man
A 57 year old male is referred for arthritis of the hands for the last 8 years. He complains of pain, swelling, stiffness in the fingers only. He denies rash, bowel, urologic or ocular complaints. Over-the-counter NSAIDs have provided only partial relief.
Read ArticleTroponin and BNP in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Hypertension
Common cardiac biomarkers could be used to identify patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) at risk for developing pulmonary hypertension, French researchers reported.
Read ArticleObesity Drives Rheumatoid Arthritis
Systematic review of the literature examined whether obesity is associated with a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis (citation source http://url.ie/z1y6) and found that obese individuals (BMI > 30) are at
Read ArticleTNF inhibitors in Early Axial SpA Spares NSAID Use
In a 2 year follow-up of the DESIR cohort of patients with early inflammatory back pain (627 patients), TNF inhibitor use was associated with a significantly greater decrease in the median NSAID intake (from 54.9 to 1.9 in TNFi pts versus from 41.9 to 22.3 in non-TNFi pts, p0.05).
Read ArticleUstekinumab Bests TNF Inhibitors for Biologic Survival in Psoriasis
Using drug survival as a global measure of a drug's effectiveness, safety and tolerability, UK investigators used a national pharmacovigilance cohort (British Association of Dermatologists Biologic Interventions Register) to compare survival rates of the first biologic used in 3,523 biologic-naiv
Read ArticleManagement of Digital Ulcers in Scleroderma
Currently there are no FDA-approved medications for the treatment of digital ulcerations in the United States. Digital ulcers are a common, unfortunate and difficult to manage consequence of the vascular obliteration and fibrosis that accompanies systemic sclerosis.
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