Exclusive: ACR Convergence 2024| Focus Rheums

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Other Rheumatic Conditions

Biomarkers May Help Differentiate Crohn’s From Colitis

David Douglas  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Serum biomarkers can discriminate between Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), according to Danish and Dutch researchers. “The biomarker assays measure neo-epitopes, which are fragments of extracellular matrix protein degradation,” Joachim Høg Mortensen, a PhD student at Nordic Bioscience in Herlev, Denmark, told Reuters Health by email. “These neo-epitopes are increasingly…

Psoriatic Disease Linked to Higher Risk of Uveitis & Vice Versa

Rob Goodier  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Two classes of inflammatory diseases, uveitis and psoriatic disease, appear linked, as a diagnosis of one increases the risk of developing the other, new research has found. A study of Danish patient registries found nearly triple the rate of uveitis among patients with psoriatic arthritis compared to the general population, and double…

Skin Complications of Anti-TNF Therapy Common in IBD

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Dermatologic complications hit about one in five patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) therapy, leading to discontinuation of treatment, a French study finds. Dr. Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, from University Hospital of Nancy, and colleagues note that dermatological complications of anti-TNF therapy are known to occur frequently in IBD…

Adalimumab Remains Safe, Effective for Psoriasis

Scott Baltic  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—In adults with chronic plaque psoriasis, adalimumab (Humira, AbbVie) was generally well tolerated and effective during five years of therapy, according to a new analysis. The interim analysis is from ESPRIT, a 10-year multinational post-marketing registry. “Clinical trials are not the real world,” in part because patients with comorbidities are screened out…

Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis Linked with Arrhythmia

Laura Newman  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Psoriasis is linked to a higher risk for arrhythmia, independent of classic cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, according to a study from Taiwan. “In my practice, arrhythmia as comorbidity is discussed during patient consultation along with other comorbidities,” said senior author Dr. Tsen-Fang Tsai of the Department of Dermatology at National Taiwan University…

Secukinumab Effective for Treating Psoriatic Arthritis

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The anti-interleukin-17A monoclonal antibody secukinumab improves signs and symptoms in patients with psoriatic arthritis, according to results from Novartis’ FUTURE 2 trial. In earlier studies, secukinumab has demonstrated superior effectiveness to placebo and etanercept in improving the signs and symptoms of psoriasis. Dr. Iain B. McInnes from the University of Glasgow in…

Adverse Event Risk Data Drive Evaluation of Psoriasis Treatments

Michele B. Kaufman, PharmD, CGP, RPh  |  

PSOLAR, the Psoriasis Longitudinal Assessment and Registry, is a multicenter, longitudinal, intercontinental, disease-based registry used to identify adverse events from commonly used psoriasis drugs.1 An evaluation of the risk of serious infection from systemic psoriasis treatments was recently published using data from PSOLAR. Ninety-three institutional review boards or ethics committees reported into the registry from…

Studies Challenge Conventional Infliximab Protocols in IBD

Laura Newman  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Dose optimization of infliximab is needed much earlier in ulcerative colitis than in Crohn’s disease, a single-center retrospective study reveals. “We compared the rates of dose increases over a fairly lengthy period of time,” said Dr. Mark Silverberg, the study’s senior author from the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “Patients with ulcerative…