Is self-directed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) when augmented with asynchronous, personalized feedback for chronic pain (CBT-CP) superior to clinician-delivered CBT-CP?
New and updated clinical guidelines released today provide comprehensive, evidence-based recommendations for the management of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) for both adults and children. The effort includes an update to the 2019 ACR/SAA/SPARTAN treatment guidelines focusing on adults, alongside a newly developed companion guideline focused specifically on juvenile axial spondyloarthritis.
Real-world or observational data from registries, claims datasets, or electronic health records can enable us to perform large-scale analyses.
JAMA Network Open has publshed that a simple 2-gene blood test may aid the earlier diagnosis of Kawasaki disease in children with febrile illnesses.
Prospects are growing that an approved, off-the-shelf drug can rescue patients with certain ultra-refractory autoimmune diseases, a pair of new reports suggest.
PLoS Medicine has published a population-based retrospective cohort study from the Southern Israeli Pregnancy Registry (siPREG) project showing that 1st trimester exposure to NSAIDs was not associated with major congenital malformatoin (MCM) risk.
Biomarker interest has grown considerably in the last 2 decades, owing to advances in genetics, imaging, protein, and multiomics. Despite these advances, biomarkers as the predictive holy grail of RA therapeutics and prognostication have not yet advanced beyond rheumatoid serologies and C-reactive protein (CRP).
An editorial in Lancet Rheumatology calls for "..reframing axSpA as a systemic, autoimmune inflammatory disease with multiorgan involvement and substantial unmet need."The pathogenesis relies on not only HLA-B27, but also on environmental triggers, immune dysregulation, and gut inflammation. AxSpA is not confined to the spine, as gut dysbiosis leads to immune activation, driven by IL-17, IL-22, and TNF.
A comprehensive JAMA review synthesizes current evidence on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical evaluation, and treatment of nonspecific low back pain, drawing on 108 publications identified from a PubMed search (2005–2026) and the most recent guidelines from the WHO, ACP, and NICE. While the primary audience is generalists, the review carries important implications for rheumatologists who regularly encounter patients with back pain in
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and best ways to review EULAR 2026.
In an oral abstract presentation on Wednesday 3rd June, Fredrik Albach presented results for mivocabtagene autoleucel – an autologous, fully human CD19-directed CAR-T cell therapy – from Phase 1 of the prospective, open-label COMPARE trial in six patients with anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-positive, treatment-refractory active rheumatoid arthritis.
New EULAR 2026 data show continued treat-to-target ULT beats a discontinuation strategy for maintaining gout remission (79.2% vs. 62.9% flare-free), though many who stopped still stayed flare-free. A companion study links gout and rheumatoid arthritis to distinct, adverse body fat patterns tied to higher diabetes and cardiovascular risk.
For years, peripheral spondyloarthritis has been managed with a cautious, stepwise approach: start with NSAIDs, escalate to conventional synthetic DMARDs, and only reach for biologics when everything else fails. The SPARTACUS trial, presented at EULAR 2026 in London, challenges that paradigm head-on. The results make a compelling case for rethinking when, not just whether, to deploy TNF inhibitors.
This update includes new pandemic era evidence, recombinant zoster vaccine data, and new perspectives on vaccination in patients taking novel immunosuppressants. Five overarching principles and 10 vaccine recommendations follow.
Late-breaking abstracts presented at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology's (EULAR) annual meeting, held here last week, addressed a wide range of clinical concerns and suggested that patients and clinicians have much to look forward to in coming months and years.
