ICYMI: Who gives a ‘JAK’ why and how they work, as long as they do!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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.

ICYMI: Issues in AxSpA: Treatment Intensification, Pregnancy

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A lot of interesting studies will be presented at the poster sessions on Sunday, November 12 and some of them address practical real-world issues such as treatment intensification and the impact of pregnancy on axSpA imaging. 

Is MTX Safe in the Elderly? (12.1.2023)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's news and journal reports from RheumNow.com. Good news is that nearly 99% of adult rheumatology positions matched! But the challenge is that 45% of pediatric fellowship programs and 39% of pediatric rheum slots were unfilled in the 2024 NRMP match.

ICYMI: Do Probiotics Improve Psoriatic Arthritis?

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Psoriatic arthritis and the gut microbiome have become more intertwined, especially in the past few years. It was to my amazement that one of the first abstracts I came across was the effect of probiotic modulation on gut dysbiosis and disease activity in psoriatic arthritis patients. 

Rheum Fellowship Slots Fill Up for 2024

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While adult rheumatology programs continue to have high match rates, pediatric rheumatology programs remain less popular.The National Residency Matching Program announced yesterday that the 2024 rheumatology fellowship match filled 97.6% (124/127) of programs, and 98.9% (273/276) of rheumatology fellowship positions. This is on par with last years (2023) adult rheumatology match wherein 97.8% (265/271) of the rheumatology fellow positions were filled.