The American College of Rheumatology opened the 2017 meeting by inducting the new president (Dr. David Daikh) and officers and announcing its 2017 Award Winners. These recognitions are given annually to members who exhibit outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology.

The following is a collection of AS/SpA-specific mentions culled from RheumNow's coverage of the Annual ACR 2017 meeting in San Diego. Visit our RheumNow annual meeting site to read our gout content - http://acr17.rheumnow.com/category/gout-crystal/ Specific items:

Patients and physicians are riddled with misconceptions when pregnancy is concerned. As construed by Dr. Jack Cush, most rheumatologists treat pregnancy like a cancer and avoid the gravid patient, deferring to obstetricians who do not have training in rheumatology to manage the rheumatic condition as well as the pregnancy. 

Reuters reports that a federal jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics division to pay $247 million settlment to six patients who suffered from its defective Pinnacle, metal-on-metal, hip implants. in the US. J&J says it will  appeal this decision.These implants were associated with tissue necrosis, bone erosion and other injuries due to implant design.

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and highlights from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week he covers FDA warnings on gout drugs, steroid use in Australia, biosimilars lost savings and methotrexate hepatotoxicity in psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, inflammatory disease with systemic effects beyond the joints. While RA patients are known to have signficantly higher risks for cardiovascular disease and venous thromboembolic events, an association with stroke (CVA) is unclear. A study claims data from Israel analyzed 11,782 RA patients and 57,973 age- and gender-matched controls.

The quality of the meeting was on par with the host city, with extensive data presented on a range of topics, from social media to drug safety. The organization committee did a great job and I got the feeling that most people felt the congress was user friendly given the magnitude of the event. During this year’s meeting, I had the privilege of working with the RheumNow 

Reuters reports that  U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has declaed it would classify illicit versions of fentanyl at the same level as heroin, allowing criminal prosecution of anyone who possesses, distributes or manufactures illicit versions of the drug.

The following is a collection of gout-specific mentions culled from RheumNow's coverage of the Annual ACR 2017 meeting in San Diego.

JAMA presents a French report on the cancer risk of thiopurine or tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) use in adult patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and finds a raised risk for lymphoma in IBD compared to those not treated with these agents.  (Citation source https://buff.ly/2z04f9h)

A study from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology showing that the risk of incident liver disease doubled when patients with psoriasis (PsO) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) take methotrexate (MTX), but not when MTX is used in rheumatoid arthritis. (Citation source https://buff.ly/2i9qizC)

Care to learn what you missed at last weeks ACR 2017 meeting in San Diego?  Here are 4 one hour audio podcasts - each with a compliation of 2-4 minute reports from Drs. Cush, Kavanaugh, the RheumNow Faculty and other rheumatology thought leaders and researchers.  Another good way to learn from RheumNow.

This special edition of the RheumNow Week in Review covers highlights of selected sessions from the 2017 ACR annual meeting in San Diego. Dr. Jack Cush reviews lupus and the microbiome, daily podcasts, pregnancy and lactation, osteoporosis drug holidays and screening for pulmonary hypertension. Many thanks to the RheumNow Faculty for their work and expertise!

Check out this compilation of our ACR17 Day 3 broadcasts, merged into a single one hour podcast !

Reduction on radiographic progression has now become the standard of care in the therapies used to treat psoriatic arthritis and, during the 2017 ACR Meeting, several agents reported the results of their studies with radiographic endpoints.