A recently published study gives new insight into an innovative approach to treating patients with severe scleroderma and internal organ involvement. During the six-year study, researchers demonstrated the durability of the beneficial effects of stem cell transplantation in this patient population. Their data also suggest the treatment has the potential to renormalize the autoreactive immune system…
(Reuters Health)—Black people with knee osteoarthritis may have a worse quality of life than white patients in part because they’re less likely to be offered knee replacement surgery or to get the procedure when it’s recommended, a U.S. study suggests. Knee replacement surgery has the potential to greatly relieve suffering from severe joint pain that…
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters)—The U.S. government on Tuesday proposed extending the availability of skimpy health insurance plans to millions of Americans in another Trump administration move aimed at undercutting the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed rule that such plans, now available…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The selective Janus kinase 1 and 2 inhibitor baricitinib appears also to help patients whose rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has not responded adequately to biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, according to results from the RA-BEACON randomized trial. The previously published overall results from RA-BEACON showed that baricitinib-treated patients had significantly better functional and clinical…
Patient-centered care requires increased communication and a proactive patient. But how does it benefit a rheumatology practice? According to Stanford Shoor, MD, patient-centered care offers a team-based approach that can improve satisfaction in care and positively affect RA-specific outcomes…
Research suggests prednisone treatment can selectively modulate the signatures of regulatory T (Treg) cells, eosinophils and neutrophils in patients with IgG4-related disease. The results show IgG4-related disease may result from an imbalance of immune and inflammatory cells…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The biosimilar LBEC0101 is equivalent to etanercept (Enbrel) in treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who respond inadequately to methotrexate, according to researchers from Korea and Japan. As Dr. Yeong-Wook Song tells Reuters Health by email, “LBEC0101 is comparable in efficacy, safety and immunogenicity profile to Enbrel.” The findings, he adds, could…
Several major health plans have recently enacted policies regarding coverage status for Remicade (infliximab) and its biosimilars, Inflectra (infliximab-dyyb) and Renflexis (infliximab-abda). Most of these plans are limiting coverage for the biosimilar products to very specific circumstances. Some have also begun denying claims for biosimilars and instructing patients to switch to Remicade. The plans implementing…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—People with gout face a modestly increased risk, of about 20%, for developing osteoporosis, compared to people without gout, researchers in Taiwan suggest. In their population-based study to examine a possible association between gout and subsequent osteoporosis, Dr. Victor C. Kok of Asia University (Taiwan), Taichung, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed data from…
The Insurance Subcommittee (ISC) of the ACR’s Committee on Rheumatologic Care (CORC) has recently received a number of reports from members regarding denials for biologics for patients not on methotrexate. To help avoid an often-lengthy appeals process, the ACR/ARHP recommends that members document a patient’s history of methotrexate intolerance or contraindication at every visit. What…