Intensive Patient Education Does Not Improve Low Back Pain Care
JAMA reports on a randomized clinical trial of 202 adults with acute low back pain showing the addition of intensive patient education failed to improve pain outcomes.
News
E/M Guidelines: Right Road, Wrong Direction
Last July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed new E/M guidelines for office visits with physicians. It issued the final guidelines on November 1, with a few tweaks.
Should Immunoglobulins be Monitored with Rituximab Use?
Boston researchers have found that in a large cohort study of patients receiving rituximab (RTX), most were not being monitored for hypogammaglobulinemia, despite the observed significant increase in severe infections and increased mortality in RTX treated patients.
Musculoskeletal Events with Statin Use
Analysis of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System data examined the association between statins' musculoskeletal adverse events (MAEs).
Guidelines for Patellofemoral Pain
New recommendations have been published in the Journal of Athletic Training on the management of patellofemoral pain (PFP).
IgG4-Related Disease: First Draft Criteria Presented at ACR 2018
As Dr. John Stone, MD, MPH recounted in his presentation regarding the new ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for IgG4-Related Disease (IgG4-RD), only 15 years prior, IgG4-related disease was an unknown entity in the medical community.
Low Short-Term Risks of NSAIDs in High Risk Patients
JAMA has published a large Canadian claims-based study showing that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use in patients with hypertension, heart failure, or chronic kidney disease was not associated with a significant safety risk - but this only looked at short-term outcomes (7-3
Controversial New Super Opioid Approved by FDA
Amidst a new DEA report demonstrating a record number of opioid overdose deaths (n-72,000 or ~ 200 deaths per day), the FDA has approved a newer and far more potent opioid than those that are currently being abused at alarming rates. The new agent is named Dsuvia.
Late Breaker: Can Tanezumab Be Revived for OA?
The monoclonal antibody tanezumab, which blocks nerve growth factor, showed significant benefits in pain and function among patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee or hip, and rates of severe adverse joint events such as rapidly progressive OA that had plagued earlier studies were low, a re
RheumNow Week in Review – The Heart Attack Report (11.2.18)
Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com.
Ixekizumab COAST-V Trial Wins in Axial Spondyloarthritis
Lancet has published the results of a study showing that ixekizumab (an IL-17A inhibitor) yielded significant clinical benefit and radiographic protection when given to NSAID treated patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA).
