Eating Crow (10.10.2025)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, FDA approvals, and journal articles. In this episode: HMGCR Abs, FDA approvals and Cush eats crow.

Whole Body MRI for Arthritis

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Whole-body MRI (wbMRI) reviews have increasingly appeared in the medical literature, owing to better scanners, faster imaging times and reduced costs. Used of such non-oncologic musculoskeletal imaging provides high-contrast resolution images of the entire body or selected regions screening, diagnosis, staging, and surveillance purposes.

Review: Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance

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NEJM has reviewed the common hematologic/immunologic finding of "monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance" (MGUS) - a common premalignant plasma-cell proliferative disorder found in approximately 5% of those over age of 50 years.

NY Times on Osteoporosis in Men

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The NY Times has addressed the problem of osteoporosis in men noting a need for increased awareness and screening. Takeaways:

Gender Complexities in Psoriatic Arthritis Treatment Outcomes

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Analysis of a German psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients registry demonstrates sex-specific differences regarding clinical manifestation and treatment outcomes, especially with regard to drug discontinuations.

Tramadol not effective at chronic pain

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The strong opioid painkiller, tramadol, is not that effective at easing chronic pain for which it’s widely prescribed, finds a pooled data analysis of the available research, published online in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

Osteoporosis Screening in High-Risk Men

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A Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Systems study of older male veterans found benefits of a remote model of screening that significantly improved osteoporosis screening, treatment, and adherence compared with usual care, with high patient and clinician acceptance.

Optimizing DMARD Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

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A phase IV trial from Spain demonstrates that optimization of therapy by lessening biological DMARDs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be feasible, with a low risk of flare.

Not all difficult-to-treat RA will have rapid radiographic progression

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Sequencing DNA to find new lupus treatments

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Medical University of South Carolina geneticist Betty Tsao, Ph.D., will lead a five-year project to identify rare mutations associated with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, with more than $3.5 million in funding from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). Tsao holds the Richard M. Silver Endowed Chair for Inflammation Research in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at MUSC.

Associations in Rheumatology (10.3.2025)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, journal reports and important associations in rheumatology from the past week on RheumNow.com.

Activity Trackers Can Predict RA Flares

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People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who experienced disease flares often showed changes in heart rate and physical activity captured by popular wearable devices 4 weeks before they became clinically apparent, a small study indicated.