A study of patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair shows that corticosteroid injections in the month prior to surgery are associated with a significantly increased risk of surgical site infection.

A study from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register (BSRBR-RA) demonstrates that polypharmacy is a predictor of lower treatment responses and more serious adverse events (SAEs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

The goal of SLE treatment is remission or low disease activity and flare prevention. Hydroxychloroquine is recommended in all patients with lupus, at a dose not exceeding 5 mg/kg real body weight. Glucocorticoids (GC) should be minimised to less than 7.5 mg/day (prednisone equivalent). Appropriate initiation of immunomodulatory agents (methotrexate, azathioprine, mycophenolate) can be tailored to the clinical scenarios and may allow for tapering

A French cohort study of 625 systemic sclerosis (SStc) patients has found a significantly increased mortality risk that can be predicted by common clinical variables. In addition to a multicenter prospective study, investigators performed a metanalysis on SSc standarized mortality ratios (SMR) and hazard ratios of prognosis factors.

A novel study has shown that intraarticular therapy with high‐purity synthetic trans‐capsaicin (CNTX‐4975) for chronic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) was associated with significant relief of knee pain.

Researchers found no protective effect of smoking against knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a new longitudinal cohort study of 620 individuals with meniscal tears treated at five sites in Denmark. An inverse association between OA and smoking had been suggested by several previous studies and a recent meta-analysis.  

The advent of "big data" and "-omics" technologies offers hope that clinicians will soon have better diagnostics for systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatologists here were told.