Rheumatology News

• New Research Aims to Unravel Both ME/CFS and Long COVID A 2-day research conference sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health highlighted research that points to mechanisms that suggest potentially "druggable" pathways.
  Medscape Medical News, December 21, 2023
• Low-Dose Naltrexone Researcher Disputes Study Negativity Neuroinflammation expert Jarred Younger, PhD, disputes commentary calling for clinicians to stop prescribing the off-label compounded medication to reduce pain in people with fibromyalgia.
  Medscape Medical News, December 21, 2023
• When's Best to Re-dose Rituximab After Vasculitis Remission? A single-center study found that using B-cell levels to determine when to infuse rituximab reduced relapses in patients antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody vasculitis.
  Medscape Medical News, December 21, 2023
• A New Test Could Save Arthritis Patients Time, Money, Pain Stories of chronic pain, drug-hopping, and insurance meddling are all too common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Precision medicine offers new hope.
  KFF Health News, December 21, 2023
• Novel Solutions Needed to Boost Pediatric Rheum Recruitment Projections suggest that by 2030, demand for pediatric rheumatologists in the United States will exceed supply by about 77%.
  Medscape Medical News, December 19, 2023
• Infections Down in Acute Care Hospitals Prevention strategies to reduce healthcare-associated infections are having an effect, according to a new report on national- and state-level incidence.
  Medscape Medical News, December 18, 2023
• Top 10 Fictional Docs on Streaming TV Both tried-and-true and out-of-the-ordinary holiday gift ideas are offered to those seeking a great present for a physician.
  Medscape News Slideshows, December 15, 2023
• Researchers Better Understand RA-Associated ILD Clinically significant ILD is believed to occur in 5%-10% of patients with RA, but robust data are lacking on how to best predict which patients face the highest risk for RA-associated ILD.
  MDedge News, December 13, 2023
• Bimekizumab Promising for Palmoplantar Pustular Psoriasis PPP is a type of pustular psoriasis that remains a treatment challenge, and available treatments for palmoplantar plaque psoriasis with pustules also "remain unsatisfactory."
  MDedge News, December 12, 2023
• Antiobesity Drugs in OA: Slow, Moderate Approach Deemed Best Rapid weight loss with antiobesity drugs had no significant impact on reduced mortality in a population-based study of more than 6000 adults with knee or hip osteoarthritis.
  Medscape Medical News, December 11, 2023
• Young Rheum Patients Report Gaps in Sexual Health Counseling In a new survey, only half of teens and young adults on teratogens said they had been counseled on the reproductive risk of for their medications.
  Medscape Medical News, December 11, 2023
• Low-Dose Naltrexone Falls Short for Fibromyalgia Despite off-label use of naltrexone by some patients with fibromyalgia in clinical practice, data from a randomized trial showed no pain relief advantage with the drug over placebo.
  Medscape Medical News, December 11, 2023
• CAR T-Cell Therapy: Cure for Systemic Autoimmune Diseases? CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy led to persistent complete remission in 15 patients with three distinct autoantibody-dependent autoimmune diseases.
  Medscape Medical News, December 10, 2023
• Hope Emerges for Patients With Rare Skin Disorder "A new framework for thinking about and treating these diseases is emerging."
  Medscape Medical News, December 05, 2023
• Next Up for PCPs: Managing CKM An AHA presidential advisory introduced the concept of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic health, with PCPs as key providers.
  Medscape Medical News, December 05, 2023
• How’s the Food? Rate Your Hospital Cafeteria Historically, hospital cafeterias have not been celebrated for the quality of their cuisine, typically feeding their staff from the same kitchen that prepared patient meals. How would you rate your hospital's cafeteria?
  Medscape Reader Polls, December 05, 2023
• Analysis Supports Link Between Psoriasis and OSA Several hypotheses may explain the connection, such as the presence of inflammatory mediators and nocturnal cytokine secretion, according to the authors.
  Medscape Medical News, December 04, 2023
• MSWS 2023 Misdiagnoses Among Challenges in Managing Cutaneous Lymphoma Although predictive tools to identify those at risk of disease progression are in their infancy, the development of such tools is crucial for improving patient outcomes.
  Medscape Medical News, December 02, 2023
• Rheumatology Fills Over 97% of Fellowship Programs for 2024 Adult rheumatology remains popular but pediatric rheumatology continues to be less successful, filling only 55% of programs.
  Medscape Medical News, November 29, 2023
• COVID Vax T-Cell Responses Help B-Cell–Deficient Patients The findings demonstrate how vaccine-induced T-cell responses could potentially reduce COVID-19 severity, the authors write.
  Medscape Medical News, November 29, 2023
• ACR 2023 Rheumatology Patients Prefer Office Visits to Telemedicine Despite relatively high approval rates overall, patient satisfaction was lower among those treated via telemedicine at two tertiary medical centers.
  Medscape Medical News, November 29, 2023
• DMARDs Linked to Reduced Thyroid Disease Incidence In a large Swedish rheumatoid arthritis cohort, the incidence of thyroid disease declines after RA diagnosis vs the general population, with the effect strongest among those treated with anti-rheumatic drugs.
  Medscape Medical News, November 29, 2023
• Nail Psoriasis in Black Patients Often Overlooked Underrepresentation of Black patients with psoriasis in trials and textbooks might partially explain why clinicians are slow to recognize nail involvement, even after psoriasis has been diagnosed.
  MDedge News, November 28, 2023
• ACR 2023 Conditional Recommendations Rule in New SARD ILD Guidelines In spring 2024, the ACR is expected to release guidelines to help inform the screening, monitoring, and treatment of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in people with SARDs.
  MDedge News, November 28, 2023
• Telitacicept Shows Efficacy, Safety in MTX-Resistant RA Telitacicept is a recombinant fusion protein that aims to target and neutralize B lymphocyte stimulator and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), both of which are linked to autoimmunity.
  MDedge News, November 28, 2023
• ACR 2023 Abatacept Slows Progression to RA, Phase 2b Trial Finds The study was conducted at 28 sites in the United Kingdom and three in the Netherlands.
  MDedge News, November 28, 2023
• Lupus Drug Fails to Reduce Symptoms in Mid-stage Study Roivant Sciences said on Monday its experimental drug to treat systemic lupus erythematosus failed to reduce symptoms of the autoimmune disease in a mid-stage study.
  Reuters Health Information, November 27, 2023
• ACR 2023 Benralizumab Proves Noninferior to Mepolizumab for EGPA Treatment with benralizumab (Fasenra) achieved remission at 36 and 48 weeks at rates similar to those of mepolizumab (Nucala) in a head-to-head phase 3 trial of the two drugs.
  MDedge News, November 27, 2023
• Methotrexate Carries Higher Risk for Older CKD Patients Adverse event data showed an increased risk of myelosuppression, sepsis, pneumotoxic effects, or hepatotoxic effects.
  Medscape Medical News, November 27, 2023
• Risks Quantified in Medically Optimized Pregnancy With Lupus Patients who were not medically optimized for pregnancy were three times more likely to experience preterm birth and preeclampsia.
  Medscape Medical News, November 21, 2023
• ACR 2023 Telemedicine Offers Solution for No-Show Appointments Converting these missed appointments to telemedicine visits resulted in more than 250 additional hours of patient care as well as a moderate reduction in lost revenue.
  Medscape Medical News, November 21, 2023
• ACR 2023 IV Secukinumab Trials Hit Primary Endpoints in PsA, AxSpA Two phase 3 trials of the recently approved IV formulation of secukinumab showed its efficacy vs placebo in treating psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis.
  MDedge News, November 20, 2023
• ACR 2023 Novel Blood Test Can Detect Rheumatoid Arthritis An experimental assay detects epigenetic features within the unique patterns and sizes of cell-free DNA found in blood, but is it better than clinical diagnostics?
  MDedge News, November 20, 2023
• Before Signing an Offer Letter: Read This You just received an offer letter, but should you sign it right away? How legally binding is it? Is it the same as a contract? Experts weigh in.
  Medscape Medical News, November 17, 2023
• Fibromyalgia, CFS More Prevalent in Patients With IBS Irritable bowel syndrome is linked to increased odds of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
  Medscape Medical News, November 16, 2023
• ACR 2023 Study Takes Fine-Grained Look at MACE Risk With GCs in RA 'Up to half of RA patients in the United States use long-term glucocorticoids despite previous work suggesting they increase MACE in a dose-dependent way.'
  MDedge News, November 16, 2023
• ACR 2023 Split-Dose Methotrexate Speeds RA Response Over Single Dose Compared with a single dose, more patients in the split-dose group had improved disease activity at 16 weeks, and fewer needed additional DMARDs, but the effect was not found at 24 weeks.
  Medscape Medical News, November 16, 2023
• Studies Support Early Use of ULT, Warn of PAD A new analysis suggests that it may not be necessary to delay urate-lowering therapy in gout flares, and a study warns of the potential heightened risk for peripheral arterial disease in gout.
  MDedge News, November 13, 2023
• Should Physicians Go to Work When Sick? Although most doctors believe it's best to stay home if they're ill, today's healthcare system makes the answer much more complicated.
  Medscape Medical News, November 13, 2023
• Rheumatology Trials Seem Vulnerable to Unblinding: Report Until more is known about the potential for unblinding, clinicians need to keep in mind that patients and physicians could often guess accurately who was getting placebo or active drug.
  MDedge News, August 29, 2023