Lana Pine

Lana Pine is the editor of HCPLive Rheumatology. She is an experienced editor and technical writer with a demonstrated history of working in the banking and publishing industries. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, yoga, listening to podcasts, and drawing. She can be reached via email at LPine@mjhlifesciences.com.

Articles by Lana Pine

The risk of developing systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was reduced by 19% with every increase in a healthy lifestyle index score (HLIS). The risk of dsDNA positive SLE reduced 22% with the addition of each healthy behavior. Those with genetic risk factors may be able to reduce their risk of SLE diagnosis by almost 50% with adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors.

On this month's episode of Overdrive, Roy Fleischmann, MD, discusses the recent Pfizer press release regarding the safety of JAK inhibitors and his personal opinions on prescribing JAK inhibiting drugs to his patients.

After controlling for variables, eldery-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA) was not indicative of changes in Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) scores over time when compared with a non-EORA cohort. Further, there were no significant differences in the efficacy and safety of receiving biologic/targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs).

“Our study confirms challenges in selecting an appropriate outcome in interventional studies targeting medication adherence and the ways in which the lack of guidance in this area hinders research and limits our ability to compare interventions and draw conclusions about their effectiveness,” stated investigators.

Common immunosuppressant therapies for patients with rheumatic disease, such as methotrexate and targeted biologics, increase risk of serious infection, especially with respiratory pathogens. A recent study investigates the connection between these drugs and functional humoral immunity to the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech).

Roy Fleischmann, MD, discusses the recent Pfizer press release touching upon the safety of JAK inhibitors. He explains the recent scrutiny of JAKs, the concerns some rheumatologists have in regard to JAK inhibitors, and his personal opinions on prescribing JAK inhibiting drugs to his patients.