Recent research analyzed factors influencing the selection of the first-line biologic medications and the real-life factors that lead to switching from those medications to other biologics in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study compared the use of abatacept and tocilizumab with a tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitor (TNFi).1,2 Participants were enrolled in the Lombardy Rheumatology…
Brain imaging can distinguish fibromyalgia patients from healthy controls with high sensitivity and specificity, according to two papers published nearly simultaneously in Pain late last summer, by groups at the Universities of Colorado and Michigan, respectively. Somewhat surprisingly to the authors and others, in the Colorado study, which used both painful and nonpainful stimuli, the…
Neurologists and rheumatologists focus on atypical diseases, and their treatments often require insights from both specialties. Philip Seo, MD, MHS, says communication between specialists is key to diagnosis and treatment…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—As treatments for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) improve, some related conditions that used to be common in patients with RA are not seen very often anymore, but they still exist and physicians need to know how to identify them. Speaking to attendees at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting talk titled Rheumatoid Arthritis—A Case-Based Approach to Selected…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—New insights into maintenance therapy for patients with vasculitides were covered by several speakers at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting abstract session titled, Vasculitis I: Novel Approaches to Therapy. Expert Hubert de Boysson, MD, MSc, of the Internal Medicine Department at Caen University Hospital in France, led discussion on new therapies for patients with…
A study showed that prior hospitalization and the use of multiple medications are risk factors for drug and drug–disease interactions…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Brain connectivity differences predict placebo responses in patients with chronic knee osteoarthritis, researchers report. Positive medical responses to placebo treatments are common, but the underlying central nervous system mechanisms remain unclear. Dr. Marwan N. Baliki and colleagues from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago used resting-state functional MRI…
In the world of evidence-based medicine, basing diagnosis and treatment decisions on belief instead of data seems anachronistic. And yet … clinicians are human, and humans live in culture, and culture is formed by beliefs, and beliefs (consciously or unconsciously) drive perception and, often, action. So a new study shining a light on racial bias…
Due to serious side effects from the combined use of opioids and benzodiazepines, the FDA has issued boxed warnings for both types of medication…
Outside Exam Room No. 5, the chart rack was empty, so I assumed my new consult was late. Just in case, I looked back over my shoulder as I passed by the partially open door and glimpsed the lower half of a woman holding a three-ringed binder on her lap. I squinted and took a…