Drug Safety

What can we learn from Oral Surveillance? The Oral Surveillance trial has almost become a household word for rheumatologists.

Despite updated gout management guidelines from European (EULAR) and British (BSR) societies, treatment of gout is suboptimal with regard to the use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) and normalizing serum uric acid (< 6.0 mg/dl) levels.

The British Society of Rheumatology has published their updated 2022 recommendations for the use of biologics and targeted synthetic treatments in patients with psoriatic arthritis. These guidelines follow initial treatment with a single conventional systemic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug, typically methotrexate typically. They noted that up to 50% of people with PsA require biologic or targeted synthetic (b/ts)DMARD therapy. 

Impressive data on novel treatment for SLE were presented at the EULAR22 Congress. A disease that is difficult to study due to its pleomorphic presentation, unpredictable disease course, and high mortality rates, SLE is considered the dragon of all autoimmune diseases. Here are highlights of four exciting abstracts presented at the meeting with emerging therapeutics designed to slay the beast. 

Bags are packed, ready to go, but wait there’s more abstracts to show. The big news today were the “late breaking” abstracts. This is usually a favorite session of many as this is where the newest of study data often is showcased.  Here are my favorite late-breakers from Day 4.

This year at EULAR 2022, there were important and interesting topics in Axial Spondyloarthritis (AxSpA). These are my picks of abstracts from the conference.

For autoimmune patients with a history of malignancy, the initiation of biologic or targeted synthetic disease modifying agents (bDMARD/tsDMARDs) may provoke concern. While data for biologic medications and malignancy risk has been largely reassuring, clinical trials have often excluded patients with history of cancer.

At EULAR 2022, I have been looking at topics and presentations in psoriatic arthritis (PsA).  Here are my top picks from this year's meeting.

By now, those of us attending the meeting know how to find a free coffee or sprite, have found comfortable meeting nooks and know our way around! PAnd congrats to you virtual Rheums for mastering the multi-screen, multitask simultaneous consumption posters, tweets and oral abstract presentations.

A full day at EULAR with oral and poster presentations of abstracts in the morning and a plethora of scientific (review) sessions in the afternoon. The latter covering topics like sarcoidosis, Still’s disease, fibromyalgia, back pain, sarcopenia, APS, IgG4 and imaging in vasculitis.

EULAR Congress 2022 highlighted several posters on pregnancy, an important subject as most rheumatic diseases afflicts women during their childbearing years. I wanted to share with you the ones that caught my eye because they can potentially impact medical practice.

Translating targeted therapy from bench to bedside has been more problematic in SLE than other autoimmune diseases, with many theoretically well-founded agents appearing to have failed in clinical trials as a result of inefficacy, problem with trial design and/or safety issues. 

Are TYK2 inhibitors JAK inhibitors? Are they effective in PsA? Are they safer than JAKi? Read on to learn more.

One area of continued interest for many rheumatologists is the field of non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. Furthermore, the question of the utility of JAK inhibitors for the treatment of axial spondyloarthritis has been on the rise. 

At EULAR 2022, I look forward to key topics and presentations in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Here's a preview of nine studies I'm particularly interested in at this meeting.