In an editorial in the current edition of the NEJM, Dr. Jasvinder Singh comments on the Oral Surveillance trial (Ytterberg et al.), a 4-year randomized, open-label, noninferiority, postauthorization, safety end-point trial, in high risk active rheumatoid arthritis patients over age 50 years.
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For adults aged ≥18 years who received 2 doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, a third dose increased vaccine effectiveness (prevention of hospitalization) among adults without (82% to 97%) and with immunocompromising conditions (69% to 88%), with near similar efficacy.
The ACIP
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A randomized trial compared the incremental cost-effectiveness of physical therapy and intra-articular glucocorticoid (IA GC) injection as initial treatment for knee osteoarthritis showed that physical therapy gained more quality-adjusted life-years compared with those receiving
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Women who made at least four healthy lifestyle choices saw their risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis reduced significantly, an analysis of Nurses' Health Study (NHS) data found.
Adopting such habits as moderate drinking, never smoking, regular exercise, and a good diet was
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The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently recommended and approved two doses of the recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV, AKA Shingrix) for prevention of herpes zoster and complications in immunodeficient or immunosuppressed adults aged ≥19 years.
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A prospective primary care study of patients at-risk for inflammatory arthritis (IA) showed that progression to IA was most likely in those with high anti-CCP antibody titers levels and involvement of the hands/feet/ IA. Interestingly, progression to IA was also seen in those who were
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Lancet Rheumatology reports that a treat-to-target (T2T) goal of average serum urate less than 6 mg/dL is associated with an absence of gout flares and a reduction in the number of flares in the next 12 months.
While the 2017 American College of Physicians gout treatment guidelines
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While bisphosphonate drug holidays are recommended, there are few comparative studies. Annals of Internal Medicine describes a propensity matched comparison study of risedronate and alendronate, showing that, compared to alendronate, risedronate drug holidays were associated with a small
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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com. This week we discuss amputations, a $57 billion RA market, an FDA approved drug for Cat arthritis and drug that works in Sjogren's.
Study 126 rheumatic disease (RMD) patients showed that
While the American College of Rheumatology recommends holding mycophenolate (MMF) in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases patients (RMD) receiving COVID-19 vaccines, there is limited data on such an approach. A recent cohort study of RMD patients showed that holding MMF yielded higher antibody
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The EULAR Coronavirus Vaccine (COVAX) physician-reported registry has shown that the use of COVID-19 vaccines in people with inflammatory/autoimmune rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (I-RMD) is effective, safe, and well tolerated.
Rheumatic and autoimmune patients were not
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The results of the KEEPSaKE-1 study in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) has been published and shows that risankizumab (RIZ), an IL-23 inhibitor, showed significant clinical improvements when given to active PsA patients who failed or were intolerant to ≥1 csDMARD.
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Follow-up in a Scandinavian cohort of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients that began in 1997-2000 revealed a number of surprises, a new study indicated.
More than two-thirds of patients were using no drug therapies at year 18, even though only about half were in remission and
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A recent trial published in Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed the effects of B-cell depletion (rituximab) followed by B-cell suppression (belimumab) and showed effective lowering of anti-dsDNA titers and and fewer severe flare in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
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Our top 10 list of advances, game-changers, worries and those better medical practices that evolved during 2021.
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The current edition of the MMWR from the CDC shows that among those vaccinated against COVID-19, there is a low risk of severe outcomes (hospitalization and death); the highest risk is seen in those with multiple comorbidities.
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Among immunocompromised individuals vaccinated against COVID-19, solid organ transplant recipients as well as those with HIV and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were significantly more likely to experience breakthrough infections versus people without immune dysfunction, a retrospective study found
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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is new and serious complication of COVID-19 that preferentially affects adolescents. A review of proposed management guidelines is compiled in this report, suggesting a unified approach to therapeutic management of MIS-C.
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Analysis of two large cohorts of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients shows a signfiicant minority of patients to have autoantibodies typical of rheumatoid erosive arthrits, but their presence in SSc patients was associated with unique manifestations of SSc.
Overall 448 SSC patiens were
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The NEJM has published the results of a phase 2 randomized trial showing that the use of an interleukin-36 receptor inhibitor, spesolimab, resulted in rapid improvement of generalized pustular psoriasis (at 1 week), but that adverse events and infections were of concern with 12 weeks of
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Since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in January 2021, rheumatologists have fully advocated the protective benefits of their use - yet many have rarely noted flares and reactive side effects worrisome to patients. Now a multinational study shows that the use of COVID vaccination in
Read ArticleIt's great to be a rheumatologist, but boy, it's getting harder and harder. You have to be a jack of all trades. You have to be good at cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, vaccination, inflammatory bowel disease - it just never ends. This and more, as Dr. Cush summarizes more than a dozen
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Based on the safety review of tofacitinib in Pfizer's Oral Surveillance (1133) study, the FDA has added serious boxed warnings to all three marketed JAK inhibitors (for inflammatory diseases) and formalized the recommendation that patients should be started on a TNF inhibitor (TNFi) before
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On Feb. 27, the Food and Drug Administration announced it has issued an emergency use authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose Covid vaccine, making it the third COVID-19 vaccine to be commercially available. We've compiled a comparison table and some key information relevant to your
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AstraZeneca announced today that anifrolumab (Saphnelo or anifrolumab-fnia) was approved by the the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for that treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who are receiving standard therapy.
Saphnelo the
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