Clinical Skills

RheumNow Podcast – Mistakes with Steroids

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Dr Jack Cush gives his spin on this week's RheumNews and Rheum Research from RheumNow.com.

Enthesitis Responses to Secukinumab in Spondylitis Patients

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Schett and colleagues studies the secukinumab (an IL-17 inhibitor) response in patients from 3 clinical trials with enthesitis and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and demonstrated consistent efficacy with improved enthesitis scores at both peripheral and axial sites.

Pooled data from the

Paucity of Effectiveness Research on Telemedicine in RA

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A systematic review of telehealth in delivering equivalent care in RA patients demonstrates there is limited evidence that virtual RA care is equivalent to conventional face-to-face care. Despite current widespread use, there is a great need for credible well-designed research that will address

ANAGO Study - Anakinra for Gout Flare

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The interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist anakinra (Kineret) was not superior to triamcinolone for relieving gout flares, but had similar effects for pain reduction as the glucocorticoid, a randomized phase II study found.

Comorbidity and Drugs Drive COVID-19 Severity and Survival in Rheumatic Disease

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While comorbidities are associated with severe COVID-19 infection, it appears they also influence severity and survival in rheumatic disease (RMD), according to a a French cohort study,

Analysis of a French RMD cohort with SARS-CoV-2 infection analyzed the effect of inflammatory

RheumNow Podcast – Rheumatology Burnout (1.29.2021)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews this past week's journal articles and news features on RheumNow.com. Colchicine, vaccine rollout, risk of RA in endometriosis patients, tREACH trial, lupus nephritis news, rheumatology burnout and more.

Rheumatologists Rank 2nd in Physician Burnout

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The 2021 Medscape Survey on Physician burnout ranks rheumatology second, just behind Critical Care medicine.

The survey included over 12,000 physcians from 20 specialties. While 42% of MDs claimed to be burnt-out, Rheumatologists claimed this 50% of the time. The top 3 this year were Critical

Delays in Diagnosis of Axial Spondyloarthritis

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The diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (and anklylosing spondylitis) (axSpA) is often delayed and usually not diagnosed by rheumatologists; a recent metanalysis shows that longer delays were attributable to lower education levels, younger age at onset and absence of extra-articular

Telemedicine Less Utilized in the South and Urban Areas

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MMWR has reported on a July 2020 survey study from 1,009 Health Resources and Services Administration–funded health centers showing that urban Health centers were more likely to provide virtual visits than those in rural areas.

Telehealth has expanded healthcare access, especially in

Best of 2020: Infusions in the Time of Coronavirus

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After years of bemoaning the challenges of telemedicine, our rheumatology clinic transition entirely to a remote clinic in the space of a week. One of the few good things to come out of this crisis is that we may learn that in-person visits are not as critical as we thought, which may in turn

Best of 2020: The COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Registry

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What started out as online tweets and sharing newsfeed and case reports, has progressed to the formation of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance, whose mission is to create an international rheumatology registry of patients affected by the disease in order to better understand the disease

Best of 2020: A Rheumatologist’s Tips: Telemedicine in 6 Easy Steps

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Ready for telemedicine/telerheumatology?

Once you and your patient agree on a virtual visit, the following suggestions may help facilitate the interaction. If you have the ability and the capacity, record the visit.

Telemedicine Studies: A Trainee’s Perspective

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The shift from face-to-face consultations to telemedicine has been immense for clinicians and patients. Given the numerous challenges and nuances in practising telemedicine, it is apt that ACR 2020 has been packed with abstracts and presentations on this topic.

Are Rheums Attending ACR 2020?

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ACR 2020 (aka ACR Convergence) is just around the corner, with the opening ceremonies and lecture starting Thursday, November 5th; followed by the full meeting beginning the next morning, Friday November 6th. 

RheumNow Podcast – ACR 20 is Coming to Town (10.30.20)

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Dr Jack Cush overviews the RheumNow commitment, upcoming bonus coverage of ACR20 and the good news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com

Telemedicine Outcomes in RA Care

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A new short‐term follow‐up study has shown no significant difference in outcomes and quality measures in patients with RA who were managed by telemedicine (compared to usual in-person care).

Outpatient Visits Return to Pre-COVID Rates

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The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted outpatient care - numbers, scope, quality, etc, but a recent study suggests that while COVID has changed the scope of care, the numbers of outpatient visits have risen to near pre-pandemic numbers.

ICI Arthritis Tied to Cancer Progression

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Cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) who develop severe arthritis may be at risk for progression of the malignancy, a single-center study suggested.

Almost 90% of patients treated with ICI develop immune-related adverse events, which can include pulmonary,

RheumNow Podcast – Bad Disease & Bad Outcomes (10.9.20)

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Dr. Jack Cush Reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

RheumNow Podcast – Function Follows Form (10.2.20)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com. Regulatory approvals, update on global rheumatology alliance, smoking and psoriasis, gabapentin let down and defining difficult RA.

Defining Difficult Rheumatoid Arthritis

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‘Difficult-to-treat RA’ is an oft-used term that carries various clinical qualities and therapeutic disappointments. A EULAR Task Force was established to develop recommendations for the management of difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis and as a first step, have put forth their definition of

Insights into Antinuclear Antibodies in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

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Pisetsky and Lipsky have reviewed the evolving literature on the utility of antinuclear antibodies (ANA). ANAs generated as part of an autoimmune disorder may form immune complexes that mediate pathogenesis by tissue deposition or cytokine induction.

ANAs are directed at DNA or

Hepatitis C Anti-Viral Drug-Induced Arthritis

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Curative direct-acting antiviral therapy (DAAT) for hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection has been revolutionary, but a novel report shows that nearly one quarter of DAAT treated patients developed new onset or significant worsening of MSK symptoms, despite being negative for hepatitis-C by PCR

In Lupus, Older Age and Male Sex Raise Cancer Risk

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Among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cancer risks overall were associated with older age at diagnosis and male sex, and lung cancer specifically was related to smoking, analysis of data from a large multicenter cohort found.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Symptoms, Signs and Labs in GCA

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A systematic review and meta-analysis of 68 diagnostic cohort studies (14 037 patients) suggests that no one feature is more impactful that the combination of symptoms, signs, and laboratory tests to diagnose the presence giant cell arteritis (GCA).

From these analyses findings