Practice

Anti-inflammatory Diet Control of Rheumatoid Arthritis

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The TOMORROW study assessed the relationship between diet and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and has shown that RA patients are more likely to have higher inflammatory diets, but that a change to an anti-inflammatory diet resulted in lower disease activity scores.

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.

Overview of New VEXAS Syndrome

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Medscape offers up an informative overview of the newly described syndrome called VEXAS discovered by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. These patients were previously misdiagnosed with Sweets syndrome, relapsing polychondritis, myelodysplastic syndrome, MGUS, or polyarteritis

GLP-1 Therapy in Knee Osteoarthritis

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Knee osteoarthritis is best managed by weight loss, as the effects of most analgesic therapies have been marginal and debatable. The use of anti-diabetic glucagon-like peptide-1 therapies have demonstrated significant weight loss benefits; hence this trial evaluated the potential weight loss and

Can Targeting RANKL in RA Heal Erosions?

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Treatment with denosumab (Prolia) helped heal bone erosions over 2 years among patients with rheumatoid arthritis whose disease activity was well controlled, researchers reported.

Implementing Smoking Cessation Programs

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Rheumatologists are keen to the effects of smoking (increased arthritis risk, worse outcomes, blunted DMARD responses, added cardiopulmonary risks), but often do not have the resources or plan to encourage or implement smoking cessation from the rheumatology clinic. A new study details the

Rheumatology Care Derailed by COVID-19

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A survey study from the  ArthritisPower PPRN or CreakyJoints database shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic patient care was substantially affected in unforeseen ways.

Data from the ArthritisPower Patient-Powered Research Network and CreakyJoints patient community were gathered by

Reactogenicity Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines

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JAMA has published the real-world reporting of mRNA vaccine side effects (reactogenicity) gathered from CDC V-safe Surveillance system and shows that local and systemic reactions were often mild and transient and most commonly seen during the first day following their second dose.

Cost Efficacy of Knee Replacement in Obese Osteoarthritis

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Total knee replacement (TKR) in obese patients with end-stage knee osteoarthritis appears to be a beneficial and cost-effective strategy for treating. The only potential limitation is a greater risk for adverse events in those with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 kg/m2 or greater.

Rituximab in Systemic Sclerosis?

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No drug is FDA approved to manage the skin or joint complaints of systemic sclerosis (SSc); a recent metanalysis suggests that rituximab may improve skin score and disease activity indices (DAS, mRSS) while stabilizing organ involvement in SSc patients.

RheumNow Podcast – Upadacitinib Wins in PsA (4.2.2021)

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Dr Jack Cush reviews the news and Journal reports and takes "Back Talk" questions from viewers.

US Senate Introduces the Safe Step Act

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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today commended leaders in the United States Senate for introducing the bipartisan Safe Step Act of 2021 (S. 464), new legislation that would place reasonable limits on insurer use of step therapy. This troubling practice requires patients to first

Upadacitinib Clinical Efficacy in Psoriatic Arthritis

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McInnes and colleagues have published the results of the SELECT - PsA trial in NEJM showing updacitinib (UPA) to be superior to placebo in active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients, with 15 mg UPA equal to adalimumab (ADA) and 30 mg UPA qd being superior to ADA.

Janus kinase

Inflammatory Conditions Up the Risk of Premature Myocardial Infarction

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The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reports that younger patients with their first myocardial infarction before age 50 yrs have a higher risk of having a systemic inflammatory disease (SIDs) and higher rates all-cause mortality.

Data derived from the retrospective

Aortic Calcification and Lumbar Fracture Risk in Older Men

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Fractures of the spine and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) can both be visualized with spinal imaging; a new report shows that finding both radiographic vertebral fracture and AAC on the same lateral spine images may predict the risk of future incident major osteoporotic fracture in

Hypertension Unaffected by Urate Lowering Therapy

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Does uric acid contribute to the risk of hypertension (HTN)?  A recent cohort trial shows that allopurinol in young adults does not sufficiently lower blood pressure (BP).

Previous research in a small cohort of obese hypertensive kids showed that urate lowering therapy was assoaciated

Psoriatic Disease Management - RNL 2021 Highlights

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This year’s coverage of psoriatic arthritis was once again, both exciting and informative. Topics included an overview of the latest therapeutic options, an excellent discussion on psoriasis specifically, and the epidemiology of psoriatic arthritis. 

Serious Infections Still Common in Vasculitis

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Serious infections occurred more frequently among patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis who were given induction therapy with cyclophosphamide compared with rituximab (Rituxan), Greek researchers found.

RheumNow Podcast – Infection in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis (3.26.2021)

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Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news, FDA Denials and journal articles from the past week on RheumNow.com.

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   Analysis of CPRD registry and 15,670 MTX treated pts (46,571 PYs) showed discontinuation for abnormal or severely abnormal labs was 42/1000PY and 6/1,000PY and half that

FDA Panel Rejects Tanezumab for Osteoarthritis

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A two day FDA review by the Drug Safety and Risk Management and Arthritis Advisory Committees has yielded a 19-1 vote against the approval of tanezumab, a nerve growth factor inhibitor, for use in osteoarthritis (OA).

Tanezumab (TAN) has been developed by Pfizer and Eli Lilly over the

Future Therapeutics for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lessons Learned - RNL2021 Highlights

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In case you missed it, RheumNow Live 2021 delivers what it promises: a good consistent program pack with high energy interactive learning. In the Day 1 learning pods, the audience was given a tour of the new drugs in development for RA. Several noteworthy ones were

Safety of Paternal DMARD or Biologic Use

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A large cohort study of expectant fathers treated for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) failed to show any detrimental effect from paternal exposure to immunosuppressive or biologic agents on offspring outcomes.

Liver Management in Rheumatoid Arthritis - RNL2021 Highlight

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While rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not known to affect the liver directly, underlying liver disease and treatment-related effects on the liver can often become an obstacle in the management of many RA patients. In his Sunday presentation at RNL2021, Dr. Stanley Cohen detailed many issues