Articles By Jack Cush, MD
Adverse Effects of Low-Dose Methotrexate from the CIRT Trial
Low-dose methotrexate (LD-MTX) was studied in high risk cardiac patients in the cardiac intervention trial (CIRT), but was prematurely ended for not showing a change in cardiovascular event rates. Nonetheless this trial studied the safety and adverse event rates of LD-MTX and those results are reported in the current issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
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BSR Guidelines for Giant Cell Arteritis
NICE has commissioned an update to the 2010 British Society for Rheumatology guideline for the management of giant cell arteritis, and proposed a total of 19 recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of GCA.
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Primary Care Visits Decline 2008-2016
A national claims-based analysis has shown a consistent decline, by commercially insured adults (18-64 yrs), in primary care physician visits from 2008 to 2016; with nearly one half having no PCP visits in a given year by 2016.
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RheumNow Podcast - RWCS Quick Hits (2.14.20)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the highlights from the 2020 RWCS meeting in Maui, Hawaii.
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PEXIVAS - Plasma Exhange Fails to Boost Outcomes in Severe AAV
The PEXIVAS study showed that plasma exchange did not reduce the incidence of death or ESKD in patients with severe ANCA–associated vasculitis.
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Shingles Vaccine Lowers Risk of CVA
Shingles infection has been historically linked to an increased risk of stroke. A new study found that Zoster Vaccine Live, one type of shingles vaccination, may prevent stroke in some older adults.
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Alcohols Net Zero Effect in Rheumatoid Arthritis
A report from The National Databank for Rheumatic Disease addressed the impact of alcohol on disease activity and mortality in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and found that alcohol use was not associated with changes in disease activity or mortality, after addressing confounders.
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Overmedication of America
Recent research from the Lown Institute reports that 750 older Americans are hospitalized daily because of serious side effects from and the core problem is that of polypharmacy, especially in the elderly.
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Bimekizumab Effective in Active Psoriatic Arthritis
Interleukin 17 IIL-17) is important in the pathogenesis of psoriatic disease, with most current approaches targeting IL-17A. Now there is a noveal approach showing that dual neutralisation of IL-17A and IL-17F in psoriatic arthritis arthritis patients results in clinically significant improvement.
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DMARD Inertia by Registry Rheumatologists
A registry study of metric use (primarily RAPID3 and CDAI) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients shows that, even in the face of moderate or high disease activity, treatment changes by rheumatologists were relatively low (35.6–54.6%).
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