The Johns Hopkins Hospital has repeated its top rank among US Rheumatology centers - ranking #1 for the 18th year in a row, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2022–23 Best Hospitals list released yesterday.

Management of arthralgias before a certified rheumatoid arthritis (RA) diagnosis is challenging - should one use DMARD therapy before clinically evident synovitis in a preemptive effort to avoid or forestall the diagnosis or damage of RA?

Still’s disease is a rare inflammatory disorder, affecting less than 1 person per 2000 people. This disease may occur in both children and adults, namely as systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) and adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD). The paediatric form was described by George Still in 1896, whereas the adult variant later by Eric Bywaters in 1971. However only the adult disease is identified by the name of Still.

The concept of a “Still’s disease continuum” that encompasses both sJIA and AOSD is based on the many common clinical, genetic and laboratory features shared by both sJIA and AOSD.

Placebo responses are to be expected in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) clinical trials, but are such placebo responses affected by continuing background DMARDs like methotrexate (MTX) even though there was an inadequate response (IR) to MTX? 

An open-label, 2 year study evaluated the efficacy and safey (drug retention) of subcutaneous (SC) abatacept (ABA) in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and showed superior responses when ABA was given to biologic-naive and seropositive RA patients.