The transition from psoriasis to PsA – and the early diagnosis of PsA – is of considerable scientific and clinical interest. People typically have psoriatic skin disease for a decade or more before they begin to experience the joint involvement of PsA. Understanding more about the natural history and trajectory of this disease will help in the future prevention of PsA, as well as shed more light on possible risk factors and predictors.

Dr. Jack Cush Reviews the news and journal reports on CVA, TKA, PJP, ADA, and more!

The oral Janus kinase 1 inhibitor filgotinib is available worldwide, but not in the USA, where the FDA held up its approval for use in RA due to unfinished studies of filgotinib's effects on sperm cells.  The results of 2 phase two studies (MANTA and MANTA-RAy) confirm that filgotinib has no measurable impact on semen parameters or sex hormones in men with active IBD or inflammatory rheumatic diseases.

Monitoring for antidrug antibodies with biologic has not been routine in rheumatology but a new study suggests that antidrug antibodies correlate with nonresponse to bDMARDs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

The 12-month safety and efficacy of pegloticase + methotrexate (MTX) in the MIRROR trial shows continued efficacy and tophi resolution after 12 months of therapy.

Treatment with at least some biologic drugs significantly reduced 1-year progression of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) relative to classical small-molecule agents, researchers reported.

Do abatacept, cenicriviroc, or infliximab improve time to recovery for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia compared with standard care?

A phase 3 trial assessed a selective Janus kinase 1/2-inhibitor, baricitinib, in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), demonstrating it's efficacy and safety compared to placebo.

Cerebrovascular ischemic events (CIE) can be one of the most severe complications of giant cell arteritis (GCA), but is seen in 4-5% of GCA patients according to a recent French University Hospital. 

A safety analysis of six phase III SELECT trials showed that higher-risk rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients had an increased risk of MACE, malignancy (excluding NMSC) and venous thromboembolic events (VTE) regardless of being treated with either upadacitinib (UPA) or adalimumab (ADA).

I wanted to complain about patients who complain, but guilt and common sense took over. I intended to declare the problem to primarily belong to the doctor, rather than the patient. To me, the solution to the patient’s consternation should begin and end with the source: me (you). My introspection, reasonings, and commandments were fine, but I kept running into the enigma of “Trust” – which can either be a speed-bump or chasm in our physician-

ChatGPT is a new, artificial intelligence chatbot that has dramatically changed the digital worlds of education, research, graphic design, statistics and more. While this AI driven platform has the untold potential in generating written content, there is considerable concern in assuring that human-generated content of research, education and publishing has veracity.

NIH researchers have have described a novel autoinflammatory disorder called "Lyn kinase-associated vasculopathy and liver fibrosis" (LAVLI), based on a mutation in the LYN gene (that encodes the Lyn kinase protein). They discovered that increased Lyn kinase activity promotes systemic inflammation, by altering microvascular permeability and neutrophil recruitment, while at the same time promoting hepatic fibrosis.

Safety outcomes for targeted synthetic or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/ts DMARDs) used to treat RA were studied using data from the Anti-Rheumatic Therapies in Sweden (ARTIS) registry, showing that these newer agents are largely similar, but still have particular differences for specific infection or other adverse event risks.

GRAPPA has provided new, evidence based updates to the management of enthesitis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA), affecting at least 30% of PsA patients and is associated with more severe disease, x-ray damage, and poorer outcomes.