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.
Patients and doctors still haven't fully invested in the use of biosimilars, despite a steady rise in the cost of biologics, shows a new report by Harvard researchers.
Patients with osteoarthritis participated in the development of the guideline updates for the first time ever.
The American College of Rheumatology (ACR), in partnership with the Arthritis Foundation, has issued treatment guidelines for osteoarthritis of the hand, hip and knee. This is the first update since 2012.
In patients with ankylosing spondylitis receiving treatment with non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), timely therapeutic strategies should be implemented in order to manage gastrointestinal risk, say researchers recently writing in the International Journal of Rheumatic Disease.
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.
Investigators identified 7 healthcare quality indicators, “the ideal clinical pathway,” for patients with rheumatoid arthritis to reduce the risk of birth complications.
A 62-year-old woman complained to her doctor about joint pain in her fingers. The joints in her fingers were warm, tender, and slightly swollen. Can you diagnose this patient?
A look back at the developments and interviews that caught the most attention this year.
Frailty score, age and C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with mortality in elderly patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, say researchers writing in Rheumatology this fall.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved rituximab (Rituxan, Genentech) for the treatment of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) in children 2 years of age and older in combination with glucocorticoids, to fulfil an unmet medical need for these rare and serious diseases in children.
Nearly one third of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus use prescription opioids, with around two thirds of those using opioids for more than a year, while emergency department use is associated with increased prescription opioid use, say researchers writing in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in Septmeber.
A Quality Improvement (QI) method called Lean A3 helped improve and sustain opioid prescribing within an ambulatory rheumatology clinic, say researchers writing in ACR Open Rheumatology last month.
Monosodium urate (MSU) deposits detected by dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) are common in patients with gout and are associated with higher coronary calcium scores, researchers recently reported in JAMA Cardiology.
The suggestion that DECT scans might add to our diagnostic ability to detect cardiac disease may be imprudent because we have tests at our disposal and have little need to increase diagnostic costs. Good clinical judgement, paying attention to traditional risk factors and to red flags, will increase the number of asymptomatic cardiac patients we choose to study with conventional methods.
Biologics, JAK inhibitors, and opioid alternatives all served major payoffs in the field in the 2010s.
Xcenda, an AmerisourceBergen company, has just published a white paper that demonstrates the prevalence of step therapy and its potential negative impact on rheumatology patients. The authors of the report say the practice doesn’t always have the best interest of patents in mind and payers don't entirely disagree. Learn more in this report.
How therapies are advancing treat-to-target strategies, while the field faces a physician shortage issue.
Intra-articular administration of sprifermin statistically increases total femorotibial joint cartilage thickness in individuals with symptomatic radiographic knee osteoarthritis, but the clinical importance and duration of the effect are uncertain, say researchers writing recently in JAMA.
Blood clots can cause critical or lethal problems in patients, and individuals with antiphospholipid syndrome can experience these events at any location in their bodies. However, there’s not a great deal of clarity on which risk factors are most significant for this condition. In this Q&A, we feature a conversation with Eileen J. Lydon, ANP-BC, a rheumatology nurse practitioner at New York University Langone Orthopedic Hospital, who recently spoke on recommendations for treating patients with antiphospholipid syndrome.
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.
Among the year's most noteworthy findings in rheumatology, includes a systemic review and meta-analysis that provides a better understanding of how common infections and cancer really are in patients treated with interleukin (IL) inhibitors. In this article, Dr. Murray offers his personal perspectives on the findings.
Sociodemographic, physician, and insurance coverage influences who receives biologic DMARD therapy, findings of a cohort study found.
Physiotherapy is beneficial in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and while more research is needed, expanding traditional exercise programs to include aerobic and cardiorespiratory components along with patient education may improve outcomes for patients with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis as well.
Swedish researchers writing in Arthritis Research & Therapy earlier this year report that more than half (54%) of patients discontinue their first TNFi treatment within five years and those who remain on a TNF inhibitor treatment receive a lower dose.
Nearly one-quarter of patients with ankylosing spondylitis experienced disease progression over time, with male sex, presence of baseline damage, active disease state, and higher inflammatory markers predictive of spinal progression, while treatment with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors slowed the progression rate, say researchers recently writing in Arthritis Care & Research.
A new discontinuation strategy for infliximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in which the biologic dose was determined by the serum level of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, was unsuccessful for sustained biologic-free remission, say researchers recently writing in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Children with inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and chronic noninfectious osteomyelitis who were treated with TNF inhibitors had a higher rate of incident psoriasis than those not exposed to these biologics, say researchers recently writing in Arthritis Care & Research.
While the need for orthopedic surgery and the presence of uveitis have diminished over the past 20 years in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), disease activity is present more than 50 percent of the time, say researchers recently writing in Arthritis Research and Therapy.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who are physically active are less likely to report cognitive difficulties, say researchers recently writing in ACR Open Rheumatology.