News

ACR Annual Meeting: At the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Atlanta today, Dr. Konstantinos Tselios of the University of Toronto addresses the challenges associated with developing new treatments for systemic lupus.

ACR Annual Meeting:  Monotherapy with abatacept was safe and effective in patients with polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis who couldn’t tolerate or didn’t respond to methotrexate, researchers reported November 11 at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta.

Using the largest SLE birth cohort ever established, investigators determined children exposed to non-TNF inhibitors in utero were at a low risk of serious infection.

A 19-year analysis presented at ACR 2019 has found opioid use disorder hospitalizations among some rheumatic diseases have increased more than 30-fold since 1998.

Jeffrey Curtis, MD, discusses the results of a study he led examining the safety of the zoster vaccine in immunocompromised populations, specifically patienta with rheumatic diseases receiving TNF inhibitors.

Patients with lupus were at an increased risk of 30-day all-cause mortality following coronary revascularization when compared to patients with diabetes mellitus and the general population.

A new study presented at ACR 2019 is debunking the notion that use of ultrasound to guide treatment in early rheumatoid arthritis provides added benefit over conventional treatment strategies.

A new study has found use of methotrexate could reduce joint damage progression and facilitate bone remodeling in patients with hand osteoarthritis.

A new study presented at ACR 2019 has found spending on bDMARDs nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016, with post-market drug price changes driving most of the increase.

New 2020 osteoarthritis guidelines, developed by the American College of Rheumatology and the Arthritis Foundation, were previewed during ACR 2019.

American College of Rheumatology officials are offering clinicians an early look at some of the recommendations in the drafted gout guidelines the ACR is set to debut in 2020.

DMARDs for autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases have both revolutionized treatment and increased the risk for infections. These patients should be considered for vaccination with the recommendation of a rheumatologist.

Intravenous administration of ketamine in patients undergoing total knee or hip arthroplasty is safe and effective for postoperative pain relief and the reduction of morphine consumption without increasing the risk of gastrointestinal or psychotic adverse effects, say researchers writing in the BMJ Open last month.

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.

Almost 15 percent of patients with inflammatory bowel disease showed evidence of excessive steroid use or dependency, and in half of these cases this excess was potentially avoidable, say researchers writing in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics this month.

Intra-articular corticosteroid injections for relief of the pain of hip or knee osteoarthritis may be harmful in some patients with at-risk conditions or may cause complications that are not well understood, say researchers writing in Radiology this month.

More than 50 percent of early inflammatory arthritis patients wait too long for physician referrals and specialist appointments, according to the latest figures released from the British Society for Rheumatology’s National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit.

Among patients with systemic rheumatic diseases, the risk of opportunistic infections was highest in those with polymyositis/dermatomyositis, say researchers writing in Arthritis Research & Therapy this month.

Exposure to industrial emissions of fine particles matter and sulfur dioxide are associated with the presence of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), a characteristic biomarker for rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Atlanta on November 12.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ustekinumab (Stelara, Janssen) for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, a condition that affects approximately 910,000 adults in the U.S.

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.

Adalimumab (Humira, AbbVie) exposure in pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk for major and minor structural birth defects, spontaneous abortion, pre and post-natal growth deficiency, serious or opportunistic infections and malignancies, say researchers writing in PLOS ONE this month.

The use of interleukin inhibitors in patients with rheumatologic diseases is associated with higher rates of serious infections, opportunistic infections, and cancer, compared to placebo, say researchers writing in JAMA Network Open this month.

The diagnosis of osteoporosis in statin-treated patients is dose-dependent, say researchers writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases last month.

A 56-year-old woman with a history of celiac disease visited her doctor after a number of firm, smooth plaques developed over the course of a couple of weeks. The plaques manifested as yellow and pink, but then changed to a reddish color. What's the diagnosis?

Failure to achieve a target serum urate level of below 6 mg/dL among patients with gout is an independent predictor of total and cardiovascular-related mortality, say researchers writing in RMD Open: Rheumatic & Musculoskeletal Diseases this month.

Opioid use among patients with rheumatoid arthritis is prevalent, and while there is a small decrease in overall opioid use after tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor initiation, newly initiated opioid use after TNF inhibitor initiation may reflect an unmet need in pain management, say researchers writing in Rheumatology and Therapy this month.

Prior authorization requirements are associated with treatment delays and prior authorization denials are associated with greater glucocorticoid exposure, say researchers writing in Arthritis Care & Research last month.

Low-dose IL-2 might be effective and tolerated in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), say researchers writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Disease this month.

Hydroxychloroquine retinopathy is more common than previously thought, shows a study published in Arthritis and Rheumatology.  Higher dosages and long duration of use is associated with a higher risk of vision loss.