In patients with clinically stable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis, the withdrawal of mycophenolate mofetil was not significantly inferior to mycophenolate maintenance, but MMF withdrawal had numerically more reactivations, while MMF maintenance had more infections.

The trouble with rheumatology may be the words we live by. Welcome to the eulogy for rheumatology 'dead words'. We're here today to celebrate the loss of rheumatology past. These are dead words in rheumatology, words fortified unfortunately by history and habit. The lexicon of rheumatology is unique, it's challenging and it's mostly incomprehensible to those who don't know...but those are the cornerstones of the greatest of medical

Imaging is often instrumental in diagnosing and staging patients diagnosed with giant cell arteritis. A new study compared the diagnostic performance of Colour Duplex Ultrasound (CDUS), Fluor-18-deoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging in patients suspected of giant cell arteritis and found the CDUS had a numerically higher sensitivity (that was not statistically superior to other modalities).

EULAR has updated its treatment recommendations from the prior 2019 guidelines, since there have been several newly developed agents. The updated guidance includes 7 overarching principles and 11 recommendations regarding treatment strategy and pharmacological therapies.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a suppurative inflammatory skin disorder that is considered to be autoinflammatory by many. HS includes a specturm of disorders, linked by suppurative (or psoriatic) skin disease and potentially genetics. These HS-related disorders may include pyoderma gangrenosum, acne and suppurative hidradenitis, Pyogenic Arthritis, Pyoderma gangrenosum and Acne, pyogenic arthritis, PG, acne and suppurative

Medscape has published an informative review of leflunomide, drawn from Dr. Eric Ruderman’s recent lecture on the subject at the February RWCS meeting in Maui. Here are some highpoints from this Medscape article and lecture.

An ultrasound study suggests that enthesitis is associated with both synovitis and tenosynovitis in patients with Psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

EULAR has published the 2023 updated recommendations for the optimal non-pharmacological management of hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Drs. Caroline Siegel and Lisa Sammaritano (from HSS in NYC) have published an impressive overview of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in JAMA. This timely, well-written review covers the many complexities of this multi-organ disorder that affects nearly 3.4 million people worldwide.

Sjögren disease (SD) is the most common of all autoimmune disease, yet little is know of its etiology and there are insufficient interventions for those affected with mucosal or systemic manifestations. The British Society of Rheumatology has updated its 2017 guidelines, with wider evidence and recommendations for the management of children and adolescents with SD. This article reviews the data and recommendations stemming from 19 questions on

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a review of systemic amyloidosis. "Amyloidosis, a systemic disease that manifests in various ways, should be in the differential diagnosis of unexplained proteinuria, restrictive cardiomyopathy, peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, and hepatomegaly."

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal articles and regulatory announcements from the past week on RheumNow.com.

A study from the University of British Columbia has evaluated the trajectories of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) use in patients with incident RA and SLE between1997 and 2021, and identified factors associated with high adherence. From a total of 27,510 RA/SLE patients taking antimalarial therapy (23,997 RA and 3,513 SLE), they identified four groups of antimalarial adherence trajectories; ordered from worse to better:

Trials are underway evaluating the potential benefits of JAK inhibitors (JAKi) in giant cell arteritis (GCA) patients who are refractory to standards of care. An observational real-world analysis of a small worldwide cohort suggests the utility of JAKi in GCA. 

This meta-analysis of psoriasis treatments shows that biologic therapies may be less effective in certain psoriasis (PSO) patients, particularly those who are older, smokers, with higher BMI an prior exposure to biologics.