Abatacept Approved for Adult PsA On June 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved abatacept (Orencia) to treat adults with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA).1 Abatacept is available as both an intravenous formulation and a subcutaneous injection.2 The approval was based on results of two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, PsA-I and PsA-II, during which…
Patients with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) experience on average double the risk of developing malignant lymphoma when compared with the general population. With the major changes in RA treatment taking place over the past decade, has there been a reduction in the risk of lymphoma in this population? Researchers from the Karolinska Institute…
A two-year study among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) showed that steroid injections for knee pain were no more effective than saline injections and actually reduced cartilage volume more than placebo. The study, conducted at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, looked at progression of cartilage loss and change in knee pain after treatment with placebo…
Despite the innovations of new biologics and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, a large unmet need remains for patients with rheumatic autoimmune disease. Treatment remains limited for many conditions, including for conditions with a dim prognosis, such as systemic sclerosis.1 One promising treatment avenue is hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). Here, we provide background on HSCT for severe…
Opana ER Pulled from U.S. Market Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked Endo Pharmaceuticals to remove oxymorphone hydrochloride extended release (Opana ER) from the U.S. market due to public health consequences related to abuse. The agency has concerns that the risks presented by the treatment do not outweigh its benefits.1 On…
The patient was a 48-year-old woman who saw her primary care physician for a flu-like illness three months prior to admission. Her symptoms initially improved, but recurred one month later; she was treated symptomatically, and again symptoms resolved. Two months later, she presented to an outside facility’s emergency department with fever to 103ºF, with associated…
As a manifestation of hyperuricemia, inflammatory bullous lesions have rarely been described in the past century. A more classic presentation of hyperuricemia is acute inflammatory gouty arthritis, characterized by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals. Other complications of chronic untreated hyperuricemia may include polyarticular arthritis, tophus formation and possible chronic destructive lesions of the bone,…
This year the ARHP Clinical Focus Course brings together experts in the field to provide an interprofessional approach to the management of systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) to improve patient outcomes. The daylong course, titled Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Taming the Wolf—Salient Lessons from Practice and Research, which is offered on Nov. 4, will provide a case-based…
First Appearances I watched the old man, his back painfully bent, shuffle toward the scale. A blocky rigidity draped over him. His feet seemed stuck to the floor. His head hung heavily over his chest. Observing him from the end of the hallway, instead of a face, I saw only a mound of shaggy, matted…
An international task force convened by the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO) recommends systematic repeated intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA) injections as second-line treatment for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). This is the first time a group of experts has made this recommendation, which is directed toward treatment of…