Articles By Jack Cush, MD
ICYMI: The Greatest Rheumatologist - Part I
Who is the greatest rheumatologist? What makes for a great rheum? Is it clinical acumen, scientific achievement, educational prowess or years of unrivaled service or mentoring? Rheumatologists are quite opinionated on this subject and very nostalgic about their mentors and leaders. When I’ve posed this question in small groups, it’s plain to see how moved they become when discussing mentors or peers who influenced them. Thus, I posed this question to many of our leaders and mentors: who do you think of as the greatest rheumatologist?
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RheumNow Podcast – JAK Inhibitor Warnings from the FDA
FDA JAK inhibitor warnings and what it means (also: what do you think?); other news released this week; and, two questions submitted from listeners. Dr. Cush discusses this and more in this week's podcast.
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Not All Immunosuppression Alters Vaccine Immunogenicity
Chronic inflammatory disease (CID) patients are urged to receive the COVID-19 vaccines; but when a cohort of CID patients treated with immunosuppressive medications were given an mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, only those treated with glucocorticoids and B cell depleting therapies (B
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Expert Panel: Initial Views on FDA Warnings for JAK Inhibitors
Dr. Jack Cush is joined by Drs. Roy Fleischmann (Dallas), Allan Gibofsky (NYC), and Artie Kavanaugh (San Diego) to discuss the 9/2/21 FDA Drug Safety Communication regarding the cardiovascular and cancer risks arising from the Pfizer 1133 (ORAL Surveillance) tofacitinib study, but also applied to baricitinib and upadacitinib.
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FDA: New Cardiac and Cancer Warnings for All JAK Inhibitors
Today, Sept.1st, the FDA announced its decision regarding tofacitinib's safety concerns from the Oral Surveillance study - handing down warnings for not only Pfizer's JAK inhibitor, but also for other marketed JAK inhibitors from AbbVie and Eli Lilly & Co. These safety concerns arise from the Oral Surveillance study - a large, post-marketing, safety trial of tofacitinib versus adalimumab in high risk patients. New warnings about the risks of cardiac events, death and cancer will appear as a revision to the "boxed warnings" in the product label (package insert) for all JAK inhibitors - tofacitinib, baricitinib and upadacitinib.
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TNF Inhibitor Induced IgA Vasculitis in IBD
A new descriptive series shows an uncommon association between IgA vasculitis (IgAV) and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), with most cases interestingly arising after or during anti-TNF-α therapy.
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Predictors of Inflammatory Arthritis
Data from 4 parallel case-control studies within The Health Improvement Network looked at risk factors for developing psoriatic arthritis (PsA), psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) showed both shared and differentiating risk factors, but statin use was protective in all 4 conditions.
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Drug Choices After First TNF Inhibitor in RA
TNFi are frequently used first line in RA patients; and a new analysis shows that repeat use of TNFi dominates over the use of non-TNFi biologics when the initial TNFi therapy has failed. This retrospective analysis of commercial insurance records analyzed the patterns of drug use in adult RA patients who switched to their second biologic or targeted disease-modifying antirheumatic drug.
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RheumNow Podcast – COVID Marching Amidst the Madness (8.27.2021)
We have a lot of news, information and approvals to review and discuss, though I need to begin with what's weighing heavily on my mind. After, we'll dive into what we learned this week.
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Rare Risks Associated with BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine
The current NEJM reports that the use of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) demonstrated a very low risk for certain serious adverse events, including the risk of myocarditis (1 to 5 events per 100,000 persons).
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