ICYMI: How early is early in psoriatic arthritis?
Guidelines (ACR/EULAR/GRAPPA) for the management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) recommend the early referral of patients with the suspected condition for early assessment and treatment.
News
Slower Weight Loss May Affect Osteoarthritis Survival
EurekAlert!
Arthritis & Rheumatology has published a new study that suggests knee or hip osteoarthritis patients who are overweight or obese may have less premature death if slow to moderate rate of weight loss results from anti-obesity medications.
ICYMI: How do we manage difficult discussions about pregnancy in RA?
Most rheumatologists know that it is important to get pregnancy planning right for women of childbearing age living with rheumatic diseases. That is easier said than done, though: the details are difficult, it is overwhelming for the patient, and the conversations are hard.
ICYMI: Who gives a ‘JAK’ why and how they work, as long as they do!
Several abstracts have studied the mechanism of action of JAK inhibitors (JAKi) in various diseases. JAKi alter many other mediators affected by the JAK STAT pathway. For instance, T cell signature in blood that is proliferative was associated with a response in RA.
Venous Thromboembolic Risk with Joint Replacement
The role of thromboprophylaxis following total hip (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is uncertain and consensus is lacking. A recent study suggests that thromboprophylaxis strategies should be tailored to individual risk of thrombosis and bleeding.
ICYMI: The Fallacy of Biologic Treatment to Prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis
The window of opportunity concept in RA shifted our focus to trying to treat disease earlier and more aggressively to improve long term outcomes. A natural development of this was to reconsider the possibility of therapeutic interventions aimed at the prevention of rheumatoid arthritis.
ICYMI: New Biomarkers and Therapeutics Show Potential in Still's Disease
Adult-onset Still’s disease is a rare complex, sporadic, systemic autoinflammatory disease similar to systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis characterized by sustained fever, salmon-colored rash, and arthritis. The 2023 ACR convergence featured several abstracts spotlighting developments in understanding and managing this complex disease spectrum.
ICYMI: Towards Personalised Care in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Since the millennium, we have seen an expansion in the number of advanced treatments both biologic and targeted synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis. The challenge remains on how best to characterise the subtypes of RA in order to choose the best drug to ensure optimal outcome for patients.
Post-Menopausal Osteoporosis Review and Recommendations
A recent New England Journal review of post-menopausal osteoporosis (OP) provided updated information, strategies and a review of guidelines and clinical recommendations. Here are the salient highlights.
ICYMI: The Heart of Lupus
Few people are aware of the EULAR recommendations for cardiovascular risk management in SLE published in 2022. The recommendations had 4 overarching principles: increase awareness of elevated cardiovascular risk, need for regular cardiovascular screening, assess and manage modifiable risk factors, and patient education. During ACR 2023 Convergence, several abstracts were presented evaluating the prevalence of CV disease and exploring new tools to predict CV disease.
ICYMI: Sex bias in RA: time to stop blaming hormones?
Whether it’s RA, SLE or Sjogren’s, the increased prevalence of females affected by auto-immune diseases is well established, yet not fully understood. Often, I have heard that sexual hormones are responsible for every aspect of it. Two abstracts presented this year question this paradigm.
