Rheumatologists are well-acquainted with the rules for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) retinopathy screening: A) annual visits to the ophthalmologist and B) maintain HCQ doses at less than 6.5 mg/kg to avoid retinopathy. But...not only are we not so well acquainted, there are new guidelines from the AAO.
In 20111, the American Academy of Ophthalmology published revised recommendations regarding HCQ screening.
Watch Dr. Cush review 13 highlights from this week on RheumNow.
SHARE (Single Hub and Access point for pediatric Rheumatology in Europe) is a group established in 2012 to develop and optimize diagnostic and management regimens in Europe for children and young adults with rheumatic diseases.
Warnings of cancer, especially lymphoma, have accompanied the development and promotion of tumor necrosis factor inhbitors (TNFi) in the treatment of RA and other inflammatory disorders.
The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is unknown but some have speculated a role for inflammation.A group of investigators assessed the frequency of AD in and inflammatory disorder, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and if effective therapy with TNF-α inhibitors (TNFi) would lower the risk of AD in RA patients.
The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) has published comprehensive recommendations on reproductive health and family planning for women with systemic lupus erythematosus and/or antiphospholipid syndrome – conditions that largely affect women of childbearing age.
Circadian rhythms may be disrupted or become exaggerated in a variety of inflammatory conditions. For instance, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1 have a known circadian cycle to their production, but the same can not be said for TNF.
A EULAR task force of 24 individuals (including 15 rheumatologists) have updated their previous 2006 guidelines for gout. The current update, which includes 11 recommendations, is based on a systematic literature review and a Delphi consensus approach to recommendations.
Highlights from this week on RheumNow.com include:
1. Having #RA in addition to solid cancer (breast, lung, prostate, colon) increases mortality rates by 40-50% in elders https://t.co/aitjusmOai
2. The global market for rheumatoid arthritis therapies was $19.9 billion in 2015, expected to reach $21.3B by 2020 https://t.co/d2Sh5C8y9f
3. Half of doctors never heard of MACRA:Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act. Starts on Jan 1st! https
Infections are a concern for many when using tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitor (TNFi) therapy to treat inflammatory disorders. Even moreso in those at higher risk.
A recent analysis of 23 HIV-infected patients, with 26 uses of TNFi from four centers examined the infectious outcomes with 86.7 person-years of follow-up between January 1999 and March 2015.
Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are more prevalent, often more severe, and sometimes refractory to conventional treatments in HIV-positive patients, but clinicians are understandably concerned about moving on to immunosuppressive anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents when other treatments fail.
The recent edition of Science has an interesting article on the cause of death in a dinosaur - septic arthritis.Palentologists have unearthed a 70 million year old duck-billed dinosaur near New Jersey and found that the arm bones were not quite right.
Serial biomarker or clinical metric assessments are ubiquitous and commonly used to assess patients with rheumatoid arthritis (HAQ, CDAI, RAPID3), lupus (C3, C4, dsDNA) and gout (uric acid). But numerous disorders are either harder to assess or have tools or metrics that that are not commonly used.
