Articles By Jack Cush, MD
A Winning Season*
Winning is everything – in football and in medicine. Rheumatologists have achieved many successes but still struggle to win against a handful of rheumatic foes. This retrospective examines past wins and losses and helps us to look ahead to a new season.
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Education of the Fibromyalgia Patient
This week's Daily Download is the fibromyalgia “packet” we give to our patients once they have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
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Overuse and Underuse of Osteoporosis Drugs
A population-based sudy 824 post-menopausal women ≥50 years old from Valencia, Spain was studied to estimate the percentage of women eligible for treatment, and the proportion of overuse and underuse of antiosteoporotic treatment according to highly-influentia
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Shingles Vaccine Not Cost-Effective in Those Under 60
The herpes zoster (HZ- shingles) vaccine was FDA approved for use in individuals over age 50 years. However, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended it only be used in those over age 60 years.
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Drug Safety Reports & FDA Updates – August 2015
Safety reports from literature include long-term safety of rituximab, rituximab-induced neutropenia, tabalumab (Anti-BAFF Mab) results from the ILLUMINATE trial, colchicine toxicity increased in CKD patients, FDA updates and drug labeling changes, and more.
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Serious Infections Increased in Etanercept-Treated Juvenile Arthritis Patients
UK researchers set out to study medically significant infections (MSI) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients enrolled in the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Etanercept Cohort Study (BSPAR-ETN).
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More Knee Replacements at Younger Ages
The National Hospital Discharge Survey shows that between 2000 and 2010, more than 5.2 million total knee replacements were performed in the United States. By 2010, the operation had become the leading inpatient surgery performed on adults aged 45 and over.
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SCOT Study Shows NSAID Safety
Since the 2005 FDA hearing that resulted in the removal of Vioxx and Bextra from the US market, the safety of nonselective NSAIDs (nsNSAIDs) and selective Cox-2 inhibitors (e.g., celecoxib) has been repeatedly questioned, often without new or substantive data.
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Hospitalized Infections are Higher with the Second Biologic
Using Medicare claims data on 189,326 RA patients, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham examined the rates of hospitalized infections in previously biologic-treated RA patients and compared rates in cohorts starting new treatment with etanercept, adalimumab, certolizum
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Time to Listen
Every physician struggles with time and listening. Modern medicine infringes on both of these - and they may be the most humanistic things a physician can give.
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