Pfizer has issued a press release regarding the safety of tofacitinib, citing higher rates of pulmonary embolism and death associated with the use of higher dose tofacitinib 10mg bid in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated in a long-term safety trial.
Dr. Marwan Bukhari (editor of Rheumatology) has written an editorial wherein he suggests that true remission is hard to achieve. He notes that "remission as a target is a noble objective that we should all aspire to but we should not chastise our practice if we do not achieve it, as more and more evidence suggests that we should consider it the ideal but not the norm."
His would-be surgeon tried mightily to talk him out of a bilateral knee replacement. At 340 pounds, the patient's BMI -- above 43 -- was a significant contraindication.
But the patient -- Nick Yphantides, MD, chief medical officer for California's San Diego County -- told MedPage Today he "aggressively" insisted, threatening to find another surgeon if he had to.
A study from the University of Washington in Seattle find that men with osteoporosis were less likely to be assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); vitamin D measurements and were less like to receive calcium/vitamin D and bisphosphonate prescriptions.
Lancet reports that, based on a literature review and metanalysis, patients and surgeons can expect a hip replacement to last 25 years in around 58% of patients.
In the USA, there is an estimated 400,000 total hip arthroplasties (THA) annually. UK invesigators set out to answer the question: how long does a hip replacement last?
Dr. Jack Cush discusses the news from the past week on RheumNow.com - including the SEAM trial, MRI guided T2T, biologics and infection, contraceptive use, ANA negative lupus, etc.
Withholding intravenous abatacept (Orencia) for longer than a month before hip or knee arthroplasty among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) did not lower the risk for postoperative infection, a retrospective claims-based analysis found.
PHAROS is a prospective cohort studying the natural history of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in systemic sclerosis (SSc). They have shown that risk factors for poor outcomes in this cohort included male sex, DLCO < 50%, exercise oxygen desaturation, and pericardial effusions.
A Cleveland Clinic review of patients undergoing thoracic aortic surgery (1996‐2012) identified 196 patients with histopathology‐proven non‐infectious aortitis. The majority of these patients had a recognized systemic disorder, and serial assessments and imaging is crucial to an accurate diagnosis.
A treat-to-target (T2T) strategy to manage rheumatoid arthritis hinges on clinical metrics to optimize therapy. But investigators from Denmark have shown that using magnetic resonance imaging–guided T2T failed to improve disease activity remission rates or reduce radiographic progression.
Analyses from the Swedish EIRA incident rheumatoid arthritis cohort study shows that smoking and HLA-DRB1 exert differential effects on serologically defined RA subsets - but that the strongest influence was seen in double positive (CCP+, RF+) individuals.
The SEAM-PsA study examined the efficacy of methotrexate monotherapy, etanercept monotherapy or the combination of MTX and ETN in psoriatic arthritis patients, and found that ETN monotherapy was equivalent to combination therapy - and that both were superior to MTX alone in clinical (ACR and MDA) and radiographic responses.
A group of French researchers have pooled their interests to identify the challenges ahead in the management of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
WASHINGTON -- Patients would have access to their electronic health records free of charge and would be able to transfer them more easily from one provider to another under rules proposed Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's news and reports from RheumNow.com:
