Does cognitive dysfunction in SLE patients result from persistent inflammation characterized by ongoing disease activity? Recent research examining this question found no inflammatory mechanism associated with cognitive dysfunction in this patient population, underscoring previous research findings…
The FDA has approved baricitinib in a 2 mg tablet dose to treat patients with moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Bone mineral density (BMD), particularly lumbar BMD, may not reliably indicate the presence of asymptomatic vertebral fragility fractures in post-menopausal women, new findings suggest. In a study online May 9 in Bone, Italian researchers found such fractures were common among women seen at an osteoporosis clinic, yet the vast majority had not…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with early undifferentiated arthritis, researchers from France report. Several studies have suggested that conventional or biological DMARDs might interfere with the pathogenic process and prevent more established forms of RA, but it remains unclear whether these drugs are…
In his clinic as a third-year fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Ethan Craig, MD, MHS, says it’s not always easy to hear about patients struggling with step therapy or other barriers to treatment. However, as a member of the ACR’s Government Affairs Committee (GAC), he says his work to understand and improve policy…
On June 8–13, the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) came together in Chicago for its 2018 Annual Meeting. With the recent change in apportionment of geographic and specialty delegates now equal to each other, more than 600 members of the HOD were present, with several hundred staff and attendees from the AMA and other medical…
(Reuters Health)—Obese people with knee osteoarthritis (OA) may find greater symptom relief when they lose larger amounts of weight, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 240 obese adults with pain from knee OA who were participating in an 18-month experiment to see how diet alone or diet plus exercise affected their health. Participants…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Effective pharmacotherapy of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not associated with meaningful improvements in mental health, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. “We were surprised by the small effect sizes for mental-health outcomes across all of the treatments included in this review, but particularly for the anti-TNF versus disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)…
(Reuters)—Eli Lilly & Co said its drug to treat autoimmune disease lupus met the main goal of a mid-stage trial, positioning the drugmaker to begin a bigger study later this year. The data come two weeks after U.S. health regulators approved the drug, baricitinib, under the trade name Olumiant, with a far more restrictive label…
WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Thursday that the part of Obamacare requiring individuals to have health insurance is unconstitutional, an unusual move that could lead to stripping away some of the most significant and popular parts of the law. In a brief filed in a federal court in Texas, the department…