Choi and colleagues analyzed US hospitalizations (2009–2013) to assess the frequency and racial distribution of patients hospitalized with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) related to the use of urate-lowering (ULT) therapy (predominantly allopurinol). (Citation source http://buff.ly/269RMHy)

Danish researchers studied a cohort of 59,423 mild psoriasis and 11,566 severe psoriasis patients over a 14 year period, and found 240 and 50 cases of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), repectively. (Citation source http://buff.ly/1YxGpDA)

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus are at risk of cardiovascular events early in the course of disease -- and even before their lupus is diagnosed, an international study found.

Video recap of highlights from this week at RheumNow.com.

Three articles (2 studies, 1 commentary) in this week's issue of NEJM tackle the issue of whether fusion adds anything to long-term outcomes in those undergoing decompression for lumbar spinal fusion.

Major advances in biosimilars have occurred in the last three months, beginning with the FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee voting 21-3 to approve Celltrion’s Inflectra (CT-P13) and ending with the recent approval of Inflectra (generically referred to as infliximab dyyb). Biosimilars continue to command a great deal of attention given the promise of significant cost savings and potentially wider use for those in need.

Systemic lupus is a clinically heterogeneous disorder, unified by requisite clinical features and exuberant humoral response to unknown triggers.  While the diagnosis is easy, the disease course and management can be complicated and challenging.  

One of the hallmarks of aggressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is presence of antibodies against citrullinated protein antigens (ACPA). ACPA often predates the onset of clinic symptoms and in majority of cases signifies more aggressive disease course with more erosive joint destruction and extra-articular disease manifestations in comparison with ACPA-negative patients.

In a retrospective cohort comparison study, 42,180 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients were compared 1:4 with 168,000 normal controls to examine the incidence of new tuberculosis in Taiwan. The RA population included those receiving csDMARDs (36,162), etanercept (3,577), adalimumab (1,678) and rituximab (763). 

We physicians are clearly better at defining “too sick to work” in our patients than we are for ourselves.  After pondering this ill issue, I’ve come up with some wisdom, goofiness and facts.

This week, when the FDA approved the biosimilar drug Inflectra as an alternative to infliximab (Remicade), it was only the second biosimilar to be granted approval in the United States, and was the first monoclonal antibody biosimilar.

Methotrexate (MTX) is a highly favored drug in rheumatology.  Yet it has numerous nuisance side effects that may limit its use or patient acceptance.

In March 2016, RheumNow published 82 social media “tweets” regarding news, research and teaching points that impact the rheumatology community. These feeds had a reach (impressions) of 86,400 with, 76 mentions, and over 2700 visits to learn on RheumNow.com.  The average daily “tweet” from RheumNow is seen by 3000-8,000, with as many as 89,500 viewers from a single tweet.