Skip to main content

News

Australia Allows Pharmacy Substitution with Biosimilars Without Notice

Biosimilars are copies of the biologic medicines used to treat inflammatory and immunologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and cancer- potentially at lower costs.

Chikungunya Infection in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Chikungunya virus (CKV) is an acute febrile illness caused by an alpha virus that mimics RA in its clinical presentation.

Inflammatory Ocular Disease in US Veterans

A retrospective review of 1285 US male veterans showed the prevalence of inflammatory eye disease to be 2%. Uveitis was most common (most being anterior uveitis), followed by keratitis, scleritis, episcleritis, and acute ischemic optic neuropathy.

The History of Citrullination

1998 marked the introduction of citrulline as a unique target in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. The hallmark article by Schellekens et al in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has since been cited over 500 times.  Dr.

NICE Judges Apremilast Less Cost Effective than TNF Inhibitors

The National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence has turned down Otezla for coverage under the U.K. healthcare system for psoriatic arthritis.

High Lupus Flare and Complication Rates in Lupus Pregnancy

An incident cohort study from Denmark showed that 84 SLE pregnancies resulted in 62 live births.  Lupus disease activity strongly influenced maternal complications seen in half and fetal complications were observed in one-third of cases.

Conservative Equals Surgical Management of Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

A randomized controlled trial of compared the outcomes of  surgical decompression or physical therapy in 169 lumbar spinal stenosis patients.  After two years, intention-to-treat analyses revealed no difference between groups.

Psoriatic Arthritis Occurs in 10-15% of Psoriasis Patients

Estimates on the prevalence of psoriatic arthritis among psoriasis patients has varied widely, ranging from 5-40%.  A systematic review of the literature shows that prevalence of undiagnosed PsA was 15.5% when all studies were considered and 10.1% when only epidemiological studies were consi

Brain Natriuretic Peptide Measurement in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Cardiovascular (CV) risk and adverse cardiac outcomes are common in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It has been presumed that chronic systemic inflammation has a deleterious effect on the myocardium and vasculature, thereby leading to higher rates of MI, CHF and CV death.

Intraarticular Hip Injection of Ketorolac Equals Steroid Responses

Using ultrasound guided intraarticular injection of the hip, 98 OA of the hip patients were randomized to receive IA ketorolac or triamcinolone. At, 1, 3, and 6 mos pain scale and Harris hip scores were improved equally in both groups with no statistical differences.

Thiazide Diuretics May Reduce Osteoporotic Fracture Risk

A large Swedish cohort study of hypertensive men and women presented at the 25th Scientific Meeting of the European Society of Hypertension, identitied a protective effect on osteoporotic fractures among current users of thiazide diuretic drugs independent of blood pressure level.  This retr

Targeting Autoantibodies in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis carries a high mortality rate and can be a management challenge. Moreover, exacerbations of IPF may be fatal. A multicenter uncontrolled study examined the utility of targeting autoantibody production with revealed surprising results.

×