In May, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) released the"2020 Guideline for the Management of Gout"reflecting new clinical evidence since the last guideline published in 2012. The guideline puts forth 42 recommendations, including 16 strong recommendations, based in 52 PICO questions and a systematic review of the literature by a guidelines committee following GRADE methodology. 

While it is often said there is a negative association between gout and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), cases of coexistent disorders are uncommonly seen. A recent VA study describes 121 patients whith both RA and gout.

Patients with the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) dermatomyositis and polymyositis are at increased risk for cardiovascular events, with risks similar to what has been documented for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), during the first 5 years after diagnosis, U.K. researchers reported.

A new report in the Journal of Rheumatology shows that liver abnormalities are common in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and may be associated with obesity, more severe disease and select therapies. An analysis of a prospective PsA cohort study included 1061 patients. Of these, over one-third (n 343) had liver abnormalities.

The VITAL study is a VA registry that has shown that both systemic lupus erythematosus  (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients carry higher odds of both premature and extremely premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and its consequences.