Psoriatic Arthritis

A diagnosis of hidradenitis suppurativa may precede the development of ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis in patients, say researchers writing in the January 22 issue of JAMA Dermatology.

Psoriatic arthritis patients with moderate disease activity were more likely to reach treatment targets or low disease activity at week 52 with apremilast (Otezla, Celgene) than patients with high disease activity, researchers report in the January 7 issue of Arthritis Care and Research.

Secukinumab (Cosentyx, Novartis) provided sustained improvements through five years in the signs and symptoms of psoriatic arthritis with no new safety signals, say researchers recently writing in ACR Open Rheumatology.

How therapies are advancing treat-to-target strategies, while the field faces a physician shortage issue.

Among the most noteworthy in 2019:  Treatment of rheumatologic diseases with interleukin inhibitors may raise patients’ risks for serious and opportunistic infections and possibly also cancer, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open in October.

In this month's psoriatic arthritis quiz, we revisit studies presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting last month. Included here is one that highlights interesting trends in prescribing practices by physicians from different specialties. Which specialty is more likely to prescribe more medications? 

The safety of live virus vaccines in patients receiving biologic therapies was confirmed in a study of 617 patients recently presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting this month.

Philip Mease, MD, director of rheumatology research at the Swedish Rheumatology Research Group, discusses the current state of treatments for psoriatic arthritis.

Elaine Husni, MD, discusses the results of a trial she led examining quality of life changes in psoriatic arthritis patients receiving golimumab over a 1-year period.

In this month's psoriatic arthritis clinical quiz, we test your knowledge on infections associated with psoriatic arthritis, the use of complimentary medicines, erosive joint destruction and more.

Philip Mease, MD, Director of Rheumatology Research at the Swedish Rheumatology Research Group, discusses why he believes some rheumatologists are skeptical of JAK inhibitors and where they fit in current treatment algorithms.

ACR Annual Meeting:  The use of methotrexate combined with or without the oral JAK inhibitor tofacitinib produced no clinically meaningful difference in 179 psoriatic arthritis patients from the OPAL Balance study, presented at ACR 2019 this week.

Full 52-week results of the SPIRT-H2H trial were presented during the late breaking session at ACR 2019.

Philip Mease, MD, Director of Rheumatology Research at Swedish Rheumatology Research Group, reflects upon new data and discusses where he sees guselkumab fitting into a PsA patient's current treatment plan.

ACR Annual Meeting:  In patients with active psoriatic arthritis, who are biologic-naïve, guselkumab (Tremfya, Janssen) improved joint and skin symptoms, physical function, quality of life, and resolved enthesitis and dactylitis, according to a study presented at annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta on November 12.

Elaine Husni, MD, discusses how she goes about choosing which therapy is most appropriate for a patient with psoriatic arthritis.

ACR Annual Meeting:  More than half of survey psoriatic arthritis patients say they have adopted complementary or alternative medicine strategies and most say they've experienced some benefit, researchers reported November 12 at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta.

ACR Annual Meeting:  Compared with seven other biologics and a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor, the anti-IL-12/23 biologic ustekinumab was associated with a generally lower risk of serious infection requiring hospitalization in psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis patients, researchers reported on November 12 at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Atlanta.

ACR Annual Meeting:  Intravenous golimumab produced lasting improvements in health-related quality of life for psoriatic arthritis patient one year post treatment, researchers reported on November 11 at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Atlanta.

Secukinumab (Cosentyx, Novartis) provided sustained low rates of radiographic progression through 52 weeks in patients with active psoriatic arthritis, say researchers writing in Rheumatology this month.

Patients with psoriatic arthritis have twice the rate of joint surgery when compared with the general population, with one-third of patients with this condition undergoing joint surgery, say researchers writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases this month.

Ixekizumab was superior to adalimumab at 24 weeks in a head-to-head trial evaluating both skin and joint symptoms in patients with psoriatic arthritis and inadequate response to csDMARDs, say researchers writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases last month.

A clinical trial presented at the Clinical Congress of Rheumatology West in San Diego last month shows that the oral JAK inhibitor tofacitinib improved the signs, symptoms and quality of life for patients with psoriatic arthritis who have not had an adequate response to DMARDs or TNF inhibitors.

In this installment of our psoriatic arthritis quiz, we focus on features associated with the five types of psoriatic arthritis. Can you identify all types of psoriatic arthritis and address how best to treat each condition?

A post hoc analysis of the OPAL Beyond and OPAL Broaden studies found tofacitinib improved skin-related symptoms and health-related quality of life in psoriatic arthritis patients with an inadequate response to csDMARDs or TNFi treatment.