RheumNow Podcast – Drive Them Crazy (4.17.20) Save

Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal articles and new ACR COVID-19 guidelines from the past week on RheumNow.com.

1. Does Allopurinol lower mortality in gout? Metanalysis of 4 studies were split 2 yes, 2 no and overall all-cause mortality just missed significance with and adjusted HR 0.80 (95%CI (0.60, 1.05). https://t.co/sTB0Aq1lPd
2. Chikungunya infection acutely shows fever, polyarthralgia, polyarthritis, HA, rash & GI Sxs; up to 60% develop chronic polyarthritis that mimics #RA. A retrospective report of 48 pts Rx w/ MTX (mean 9.2/wk) shows signif better pain and swollen joints. https://t.co/XEbvjSQOlx
3. Xray Chondrocalcinosis does not predict the need for future TKR. Study of 656 knee OA patients found 93 (14.2%) with knee Chondrocalcinosis, and 91 (13.9%) who went onto TKR. TKR odds - not affected by the presence of knee CC (HR 1.26; 0.74–2.17) https://t.co/3JKzFjSvK1
4. PharmaChild registry & PRINTO analyzed the risk of opportunistic infx (OI) among 8274 JIA - identified 772 adjudicated inFx, 119 (17%) were OI - most common were herpes zoster (66), TB (11), candida (3), HPV (4), PJP (4), CMV (3). https://t.co/UohADllivV
5. A retrospective case-control study shows that rheumatoid arthritis #RA patients have a significantly lower risk of dementia (OR 0.71,CI 0.52–0.98); even moreso with MTX Rx >4 yrs (OR 0.37). Sulfasalazine did not change the odds of getting dementia https://t.co/E679IT6aS7
6. Rituximab in Rheumatoid Vasculitis   
7. Physical Therapy Superior to Steroid Injection for Knee OA   
8. Low Risk with Immunosuppression at Surgery   
9. COVID-19 Systemic Involvement   
10. ACR COVID-19 Guidance for Rheumatic Disease Patients