Using population based data, researchers found a 10 fold increase prevalence of SSc in first degree relatives. That equates to a relative risk of 81. Genetic factors appear to be important in the risk for scleroderma.
Dr. Jack Cush reviews highlights, news and journal reports from this week at RheumNow.com
This metanalysis from 2013 reports on an important issue for orthopedists and rheumatologists alike. The issue being in those who need bilateral total knee arthroplasty, is it better to do both knees at once or to do one at a time (staged, serial) arthroplasties..
The metanalysis identified 18 articles that included over 65,000 patients.
ClinicalTrials.gov has listed the results of the POSTURE study, a large randomized placebo-controlled trial wherein apremilast was found to yield no benefit (compared to placebo) in treating ankylosing spondylitis (AS) (32.5% vs. 36.6% ASAS20 at week 16) patients. These findings make it unlikely that Celgene will pursue AS as an indication for apremilast.
Researchers from the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children have published in the Journal of Immunology that a polymorphism in the inositol-triphosphate 3-kinase C (ITPKC) (rs28493229) is associated with the pathogenesis of Kawasaki's disease (KD). This polymorphism results in augmented intracellular calcium, that drives NLRP3 expression and production of IL-1β and IL-18.
Fibromyalgia is a well characterized condition with disordered pain processing. Although the clinical constellation and diagnostic clues are well characterized, FM lacks a diagnostic biomarker and most imaging and tissue diagnostics have been unrevealing.
It has been long known that rheumatoid arthritis is associated with an increased mortality rate, especially in seropositive patients and those with extraarticular manifestations. With the advent of new RA associated autoantibodies, Ajegenova et al studied the effects of different autoantibodies on mortality and cause of mortality.
Following is a list of top tweets in September and October 2016; they were selected based on the number of clicks, retweets and likes by the viewership. More than 40,000 people were reached with the first one on our list.
Low back pain (LBP) is the fifth most common reason for all physician visits in the United States and nearly 25% of all U.S. adults have had LBP in the last 3 months and nearly 6% reported at least 1 episode of severe acute low back pain in the last 1-year.
Low back pain (LBP) is a highly prevalent public health problem. Not surprisingly, imaging of LBP is also an expensive and often overused diagnostic tool.
Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sought to define the problem and formulate recommendations to avoid ordering imaging tests for nonspecific LBP.
The current JAMA Pediatrics issue has published a report showing that adjunctive corticosteroid therapy yielded significantly fewer coronary artery complications compared with intravenous immunoglobulin therapy alone, particularly among high-risk patients with Kawasaki disease.
Dr. Cush Reviews Highlights from the past week on RheumNow.com. Register to receive free daily rheumatology news written by rheumatologists for rheumatologists. Download the podcast at iTunes.com.
Most women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have no or little disease activity during pregnancy, but experience greater disease activity or overt flares during the first year postpartum, a Norwegian study has found.
