JAMA reports that there is a trend of increasing mortality from falls in older US adults between 2000 to 2016 and that mortality rates are increased with increasing age.
MMWR has published the outcomes from the Georgia Lupus Registry between 2002 and 2016, finding that black women were not only more likely to die from lupus than white lupus patients; but they died on average 13 years earlier (mean age 51.8 and 52.3 years, respectively) than whites (mean age 64.4 and 65.0 years, respectively).
Black women with lupus were 3.34 times more likely to die than black women in the general population, while white women
The American College of Physicians (ACP) is encouraged by the Trump administration’s executive order to improve transparency of health care costs. ACP firmly believes that increasing health care transparency is critical in providing quality, affordable, and accessible health care coverage to patients who need it the most.
It is estimated that up to 50% of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy will be complicated by interstitial lung disease, and having ILD may impart a poor prognosis. A recent review of the Johns Hopkins myositis-related ILD cohort has shown that azathioprine and mycophenolate mofetil use is associated improved lung function and less prednisone use.
A small study looked at whether reducing the number of opioid tablets prescribed after knee surgery would reduce postoperative use and if preoperative opioid-use education would reduce it even more.
Minority groups in the U.S. have differing rates of Sjögren's syndrome and exhibit distinct clinical patterns of the disease, a large cross-sectional study revealed.
The percentage of American Indians in a SS cohort of 610 patients was much higher than expected, at 25.3%, whereas the percentage of African Americans was lower, at 3.1%. In addition, American Indians had higher levels of disease activity and more extraglandular manifestations,
A large study of UK family practice patients shows that polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) or giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients treated with glucocorticoids are at an increased risk of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infection, even at daily doses of less than 5 mg prednisolone.
Patients with SLE are at increased risk for HF, not just of MI and stroke, with risk similar to that of patients with diabetes, researchers found in an analysis of Medicaid data.
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the week’s news and wrap up from EULAR19.
This EULAR 2019 Podcast is a compilation of audio clips from EULAR 2019 in Madrid. Click HERE to listen. You can also listen on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher.
A large administrative claims analysis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients undergoing arthroplasty has shown no difference among biologics with regard to the risk of infections, but corticosteroid use was associated with a dose dependent risk of infection.
The Annals of Internal Medicine has published an analysis of peri- and postoperative infectious risk among RA patients receiving biologics or glucocorticoids.
A novel trial presented at EULAR 2019 last week assessed whether the use of urate-lowering therapy (ULT) would control hypertension in those at risk; however, results of this trial were largely negative.
Hypertension is one of the many comorbidities that plagues gout patients.
Recommendations for the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of various diseases often differ by organization, making it difficult to know which ones to follow.
Research published in PNAS has shown that long after active Lyme infection in the joint, a peptidoglycan (PG) of the the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi can be found in the joints of those with late-stage Lyme disease.
Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking tofacitinib (Xeljanz) plus methotrexate who achieved low disease activity (LDA) may be able to withdraw from the latter agent without significant worsening of disease activity, a researcher reported at EULAR 2019 in Madrid.
