There is a national shortage of a new shingles vaccine, Shingrix, which is a problem for those who want to start the vaccine and those seeking to receive their second and final injection.
Since its FDA approval nearly a year ago, sales of the new vaccine have outperformed projections and are expected to approach $1 billion in revenue for 2018.
Johnson & Johnson has announced the preliminary results of its phase 3 ECLIPSE study; a head-to-head trial wherein guselkumab (Tremfya; an IL-23 inhibitor) was compared to secukinumab (Cosentyx; an IL-17 inhibitor) in adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
Interactions between disease-related inflammatory processes and the development of several morbidities have been well-studied in RA, particularly heart disease. This is not the case for the often-lethal SSc (estimated standardized mortality ratio between 2.5 and 4.0). Similarly, there are no studies comparing the most relevant comorbidities between SSc and RA.
The NEJM has reported the NIH's Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) study results of genetically identifying new diseases from prospectively followed persons with undiagnosed disorders.
The UDN was formed in 2014 as a network of seven clinical sites, two sequencing cores, a coordinating center, central biorepository, a metabolomics core, and a model organisms screening center. It was established to apply a multidisciplinary model in the
The risk for cancer in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients has been inconsistently studied. A new metanalysis shows that SLE has an increased risk for 16 specific cancers and decreased risk for prostate cancer and cutaneous melanoma.
Sometimes patients withhold information from their doctors, and a new study suggests that as much as 60 - 80% of patients consciously omit information to their doctors, despite knowing this may bear on their health and well-being.
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and new journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com:
JAMA has published the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study showing that that, from 2002 to 2016, the US burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) increased, with some states exhibiting more than twice the burden as others. The increase in burden was associated with increased metabolic and dietary risk exposure that manifested in increased probability of death due to diabetic CKD, especially for those between 20 to 55 years.
The Gerontological Society of America has published a report calling for deprescribing as a means of managing polypharmacy in the elderly.
A comparative cohort study assessing the quality of care in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) suggests that a dedicated lupus clinic has better quality measure performance compared to lupus management in a general rheumatology clinic.
A study from Rush University enrolled 150 consecutive SLE patients - with 73 followed in the general rheumatology clinic and 77 followed in a dedicated lupus clinic.
B-cell depletion may offer a means of delaying the onset of clinical arthritis in adults at high risk, according to the PRAIRI study - a proof-of-mechanism study in pre-clinical RA patients.
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) have released a joint treatment guideline for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) that provides evidence-based pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic recommendations and includes recommendations on other management issues including vaccinations, psoriatic spondylitis, enthesitis, and treatment in the presence of inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, or serious infections.
Researchers from MIT have developed a novel treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) by using dendrimer-based nanocarriers to deliver insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) to chondrocytes within joint cartilage and in animal models have shown when these nanocarriers injected into rat knees in models of OA, they reduced cartilage degeneration.
A systematic review of 81 studies on vitamin D concludes that vitamin D supplementation does not prevent fractures or falls, or have clinically meaningful effects on bone mineral density.
Metanalyses specifically looked at studies addressing total or hip fractures, falls, or bone mineral density measured at the lumbar spine, total hip, femoral neck, total body, or forearm.
Another, new Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitor is out with impressive data - this time its filgotinib, demonstrating its efficacy and safety two separate clinical trials of patients with psoriatic arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis.
