RheumNow has begun covering EULAR 2021, the premier Rheumatology Congress that is usually held in Europe, but has gone virtual in 2021 because of the pandemic. We have several faculty members around the world reporting on the this year's meeting. Please visit RheumNow.com daily for the latest videos, tweet summaries, news articles and podcasts emanating from EULAR. Look for our coverage on these and other important topics:

Many great presentations this week at EULAR 2021 will feature industry sponsored clinical trials and reports.  Often these become the pivotal studies for regulatory approval and the annual congresses are their first look.

Foot pain is a common but underappreciated symptom of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and can be associated with worse disease, European researchers found. In a cohort of 320 patients with RA, 69% reported foot or ankle pain, according to Morten Bilde Simonsen, PhD, of Aalborg University in Denmark, and colleagues.

A recent metanalysis assessed the comparative efficacy of current first-line pharmacologic antiinflammatory interventions for gout flares and surmised that canakinumab and intravenous or intramuscular corticosteroids are superior to  nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs [NSAIDs].

Lancet Respiratory Medicine has reported the results of the COLCORONA trial, showing that in patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection, colchicine led to a significantly lower rate of death or hospital admission from COVID.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from this past week on RheumNow.com.

One-third of patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases being treated with methotrexate showed attenuated responses to the COVID-19 vaccine, researchers reported.

The NEJM has published the results of a French multicenter study showing that prosthetic joint infections can be successfully managed with 6 weeks of antibiotic therapy; this was noninferior and had better outcomes compared to 12 weeks of antibiotic therapy.

EULAR has published evidence-based recommendations on the use of intra-articular therapies (IAT) based on the literature review and recommendations of a multidisciplinary international task force. These IAT recommendations apply to adult patients with peripheral arthropathies.

The Swedish Register compared outcomes of 1502 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients initiating either biologics plus methotrexate (MTX) or triple therapy (MTX plus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine) and showed similar rates of sustained remission.

A large prospective cohort study examined the comparative risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and found that, methotrexate (MTX), abatacept (ABA) and TNF inhibitor (TNFi) use were associated with a decreased risk of CV events. 

JAMA Internal Medicine report an analysis of recent and composite trial data suggesting that tocilizumab (TCZ) therapy in COVID-19–associated pneumonia patients with high CRP levels is likely to be effective.

House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pummeled AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez for raising the price of two widely used drugs and for the company's "legally questionable" tactics to head off competition from biosimilars, despite pulling in healthy profits.

Analysis of data from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance shows that rheumatic diseases infected with COVID-19 had a greater risk of death with age, comorbidities, high disease activity and few specific therapies. Rheumatic disease adults with a confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 diagnosis (from 24 March to 1 July 2020) were included in this analysis of risk factors associated with COVID-19-related death.

Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com Metanalysis (11 RCTs, 19 registries) of Pulm arterial HTN assoc. w/ CTD (w/ 1,267 & 4,008 CTD-PAH pts), showed Investigational Rxs reduced morbidity/mortality by 36%. CTD-PAH survival was lower (62 vs 72%) @3yrs, but improved after 2010 (73 vs 65%) https://t.co/0BkO70AQfi