Articles By Jack Cush, MD
EMA to Review Methotrexate Overdose and Dosing Errors
A recent meeting (April 9-12) of the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) considered the problem of dosing errors with methotrexate (MTX), citing "continued reports of overdose."
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MMWR: Cannabis Use in the Colorado Workers
MMWR reports that eight states, including Colorado, have legalized recreational marijuana for use by adults and that a study of use in Colorado has shown that nearly 15% of Colorado adult workers have used marijuana in the past 30 days.
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Mayo and UAB Awarded $1 million Grant for Patient Research
CreakyJoints and Pfizer have selected the Mayo Clinic and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to each receive a $500K research award (funded by Pfizer Independent Grants) for Learning & Change.
Read ArticleRheumNow Week in Review - Do you Dig Shingrix? (4.6.2018)
Dr. Jack Cush reviews the news and journal reports from the past week on RheumNow.com. Highlights includes manpower shortfalls, comorbidities in AA Lupus, certolizumab pregnancy safety, which Shingles vaccine is best and the power of combination biologics in severe refractory SLE.
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"Breakthrough" Drug Designation by the FDA
The current issue of the NEJM reviews the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “breakthrough therapy” designation that was introduced in 2012 to expedite testing and approval of medications that were intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. This status is granted when prelimi
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SynBioSe: Combo Rituximab and Belimumab Succeeds in Severe Refractory Lupus
One of the driving pathogenic mechanisms in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the generation of immune complexes capable of inducing netosis (NET formation) and NET-derived DNA that may be an amplifying autoantigen and give rise to anti-nuclear autoantibodies (ANAs).
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Increased Comorbidity Burden in Lupus African Americans
Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center used electronic health records (EHR) to perform a phenome-wide study comparing African American (AA-SLE) and Caucasian (C-SLE) with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and found more comorbidities in AA-SLE, especially renal, cardiovascular, an
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Throw Me Rope
A gal with rheumatoid arthritis moved to my town and has transferred her care to me. Despite having RA for 3 years and swollen joints at the last three visits, she has taken surprisingly few effective drugs thus far.On this visit I declared my concerns for her future health, especially if we didn’t make significant changes in therapy. So I recommended she start a new drug. She asked several good questions, then stated she wanted to go home and think about this further and she would get back to me with her decision.But wait, that’s what she said at her last visit 2 months ago!
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ACR Projects Significant Manpower Shortages for 2030
Arthritis & Rheumatology has published the results of the 2015 Workforce Study of Rheumatology Specialists, and estimates a current shortage (demand > supply) of 700 (12.9%) full-time rheumatologists and that this deficit will worsen (102%) to 4133 FTE by 2030.
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Defining Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis
Dr. Maya Buch from Leeds has a thoughtful Viewpoint article in Annals of Rheumatic Disease on how to consider and manage the refractory or difficult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient.
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