Initial 24-week data from a study of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) show that treatment with guselkumab improved symptoms and resulted in a higher ACR20 response than placebo in patients who could not tolerate, or did not respond to, treatment with a tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi).
Mounting evidence indicates that exposure to inorganic dust is a risk factor for the development of autoimmune diseases. According to a recent study, dust exposure during military service in dusty environments represents an occupational and environmental risk and was associated with a 10% increased risk of developing RA.
(Reuters Health)—Adults 50 years and older who take tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi’s) for a range of inflammatory disorders can receive effective protection from shingles with a live varicella zoster vaccine, a clinical trial suggests.1 Researchers randomized 617 participants receiving TNFi’s in a 1:1 ratio to receive either the Zostavax live varicella zoster vaccine or…
Reuters)—Severe COVID-19 may trick the immune system into producing autoantibodies that have the potential to eventually attack healthy tissue and cause inflammatory diseases, researchers warned in a paper published in Nature Communications.1 They found autoantibodies in blood samples from roughly 50% of the 147 COVID-19 patients they studied, but in fewer than 15% of 41…
Increased cardiovascular (CV) risk in patients with rheumatic disease is old news. Over the past decade, a multitude of studies have demonstrated elevated CV risk in a variety of conditions: systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), to name a few. The risk in patients with rheumatic disease seems to be linked to…
Recent research suggests patients with RA and a positive test for anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) may not have a different disease course than patients with RA who test negative for ANA. However, these patients may experience different treatment courses.
Bechman et al. set out to describe the frequency and predictors of nonserious infections and compare incidence rates across biologic DMARDs. They found all bDMARDs are associated with a greater risk of nonserious infection, with differences observed between agents. Although unmeasured confounding must be considered, the magnitude of effect is large.
Contraception, disease control, family planning and managing life with an infant—five experts addressed these concerns and more for patients with rheumatic disease during a special online webinar.
Jason Springer, MD, MS, served as one of the lead authors of the ACR/VF guidelines for polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), and talks about the recommendations specific to PAN here.
Although patient volume temporarily declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rheumatologists saw a larger increase in compensation in 2020 than in 2019, according to a recent Medscape survey.