Articles By Jack Cush, MD
Curbside Consults - December 2015
The following is a collection of cases presented to me by my colleagues in Canada during a day of workshop case discussions among clinical consultants. Each case is presented because of a challenging therapeutic issue.
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The Rising Price of Dermatologic Drugs
Containment of health care costs was a primary goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But there is little evidence of success in curbing the rising price of prescription drugs. As such, many medications are unaffordable to those who need them.
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Fertility in RA Linked to Disease Activity, NSAIDs and Prednisone
Brouwer and colleagues from the University Medical Center Rotterdam in The Netherlands have studied the issue of infertility in a cohort of RA patients followed prospectively.
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Chronic Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis Portends More Complications
A prospective, international observational study of systemic sclerosis patients enrolled in the Digital Ulcers Outcome (DUO) Registry: Patients were required to have ≥3 follow-up visits over at least a 2 year observation period between 2008-2013.
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Don't Blame the L-Tryptophan and Turkey
The harvest holiday is upon us and many will huddle around the television to enjoy their post-turkey coma; only to awaken and see the highlights of the football they intended to watch. An article in Science Daily quotes experts at Loyola University on this matter.
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Eczema May Respond to Tofacitinib
A recent report from the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that the oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib to be effective in the treatment of moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.
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ACP Says There are Reasons for Generics Over Branded Drugs
The American College of Physicians (ACP) says that prescribing generic medications whenever possible can improve adherence to therapy, improve outcomes, and reduce costs for patients and the health care system. ACP’s best practice advice paper is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
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DSB: ACR 2015 Safety Reports
The following is a compilation of abstracts presented at the 2015 Annual ACR meeting in San Francisco. These were chosen on the basis of impact, quality and safety message.
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Interstitial Lung Disease Not Increased with Biologics
Extraarticular manifestations affect more then half of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and interstitial lung disease or "RA lung" is one of the more prevalent. The frequency of ILD in patients with RA varies from 5% to 58%.
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EU Endorses Biosimilar Etanercept (SB4) from Samsung/Biogen
Reuters today reported that a copy of the blockbuster biotech drug Enbrel (SB4) was recommended for approval in Europe on Friday, making it the second so-called biosimilar antibody medicine to win such a green light from the continent's regulators.
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