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

Obesity Linked with Disability in RA

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may be more likely to become disabled if they’re obese, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on more than 25,000 patients with RA. Most were overweight or obese when they joined the study. Those who were severely obese were more likely to report some disability at baseline. Over…

New Study Raises Cardiovascular Questions about Febuxostat for Gout

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New research raises questions about the cardiovascular safety of febuxostat for gout patients compared with allopurinol. The study found that although febuxostat was noninferior to allopurinol, febuxostat-treated patients had similar overall rates of major adverse cardiovascular events as allopurinol-treated patients, but had higher rates of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality…

Clinical Remission Should Be Target of JIA Treatment: Task Force

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—An international task force says patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) should be treated to a target of clinical remission, among other new recommendations. “The Task Force is convinced that transferring (the recommendations) into clinical practice will significantly improve the outcomes in patients with JIA,” Dr. Angelo Ravelli of the Istituto G….

Septic or Lyme Hip Arthritis? Rapid Lyme Diagnostics Could Avoid Unnecessary Treatment

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—In Lyme-endemic areas, synovial fluid white blood cell (WBC) count isn’t very helpful in distinguishing septic from Lyme arthritis of the hip, a new study suggests. Use of newer-generation Lyme disease diagnostics are necessary to avoid the “under- and overdiagnosis of Lyme arthritis at the time that initial management decisions must be…

FDA Staff Raises Safety Concerns Over Arthritis Drug Baricitinib

Tamara Mathias  |  

(Reuters)—An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co. and Incyte Corp. poses serious risks of deadly blood clots at higher doses, U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff says, the latest setback to a treatment regulators declined to approve last year. New data provided by the companies in a resubmission of their marketing…

Denosumab May Work Better Than Risedronate for Steroid-Induced Osteoporosis

Reuters Staff  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The RANKL inhibitor denosumab is superior to the bisphosphonate risedronate in increasing bone-mineral density (BMD) at the lumbar spine in patients just starting or continuing steroid therapy, according to 12-month results of a 24-month randomized controlled study. “Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is the most common form of secondary osteoporosis and increases the risk of…

Getting Past the Noise to Identify SpA

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Objective: Low-grade bone marrow edema (BME) has been reported in the sacroiliac (SI) joints of 25% of healthy individuals and patients with nonspecific mechanical back pain, thus challenging the specificity and predictive value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the identification of early spondyloarthritis (SpA). It is unknown whether stress injury in competition sports may…