15% of Users Exceed Recommended OTC NSAID Dosing
New data shows that nearly 15 percent of adult ibuprofen users exceed the maximum recommended dose of ibuprofen or other NSAIDs in a one-week period.
News
Higher Fracture Risk with PMR and GCA
Corticosteroid therapy is integral to the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) and a new retrospective cohort study from the UK shows that PMR and GCA have similar, increased risk of fractures.
The RheumNow Week in Review - 26 January 2018
The RheumNow Week in Review discusses the past week's news, journal articles and highlights from RheumNow.com. This week's report covers the price of biologics treatment in psoriasis, comorbidities in myositis, bronchiectasis with MPO antibodies, and the risk of secondary TNF failure with anti-drug antibodies.
Obesity Outweighs Psoriasis in Comorbidity Risk with Children
Like their adult counterparts, psoriasis in children is an independent risk factor for comorbidity, but not as much as obesity.
Anti-Drug Antibodies Partly Explain Secondary TNF Inhibitor Failures
An observational study of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or spondyloarthritis (SpA) experiencing secondary failure to TNF inhibitor (TNFi) therapy showed that (secondary) loss of efficacy to a TNFi was associated with anti-drug antibodies in less than 30% of patients.
PRESERVE Study: HAQ, BMI and Age Predict Responses to Combo Therapy
Rheumatoid arthritis patients who were younger and who had lower body mass index, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) scores, and less disease activity at baseline were most likely to achieve remission after combination etanercept (Enbrel) and methotrexate induction therapy, a post hoc analysis of the PRESERVE trial found.
Teriparatide Superior to Risedronate in the VERO Trial
Lancet reports that in a study teriparatide with risedronate, post-menopausal women with severe osteoporosis had significantly fewer new vertebral and clinical fractures on teriparatide comared to those receiving risedronate.
Cimzia Limits Xray Progression in Axial Spondyloarthritis
The RAPID-axSpA study of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA) patients showed that certolizumab pegol (CZP) treatment yielded rapid clinical improvement with limited radiographic progression and MRI inflammation at the sacroiliiac (SI) joint over 4 years.
Apremilast’s Rapid Onset in Psoriatic Arthritis
Monotherapy with apremilast (Otezla) among patients with psoriatic arthritis who were biologic-naive was significantly more effective than placebo as early as week 2 in a phase IIIb study.
Problems with Biologic Drug Storage
Is your patient’s refrigerator the problem with the inefficacy of biologic therapies? Studies show most patients don't store their biologics correctly, which may be a source of limited drug efficacy.
Weight Loss Linked to RA Improvement
By retrospectively reviewing electronic health record (EHR) data, Kreps et al found that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who lost >5 kg of weight were three times more likely to demonstrate improvement in disease activity.
The RheumNow Week in Review - 19 January 2018
The RheumNow Week in Review discusses the past week's news, journal articles and highlights from RheumNow.com. This week's report covers the rising cost of adalimumab, infections in myositis, phyisician burnout, biologics in Still's disease and weight loss benefits in RA.
Two Types of Osteoarthritis Based on Cartilage Studies
A report from Annals of Rheumatic Diseases suggests that osteoarthritis (OA) may be two distinct diseases based on genetic studies of articular cartilage. (Citation source: https://buff.ly/2mNtUsL).
Prevention of HBV Infection: How Are We Doing?
In 2016 the WHO set out to eliminate HBV infection as a public health threat by 2030. So far, we are far from this goal as vaccine implementation has been suboptimal in a number of important patient populations, including patients with rheumatologic diseases, as well as other immunocompromising diseases like HIV.
Rheumatology Physician Burnout and Depression
The 2018 Medscape Physician Burnout and Depression report shows that 42% of physician respondents report "burnout" and up to 15% experience some sort of depression. In a survey of 15,543 doctors from 29 specialties, they found highest burnout rates in critical care and neurologists (48%), family medicine (47%), ob/gyns and internists (46%). Lowest rates were seen in pathology and dermatology (32%), and plastic surgery (23%).
What did rheumatologists report?
