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

U.S. Judge Throws Out Maryland Bid to Protect Obamacare

Lawrence Hurley  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—On Feb. 1, a U.S. judge threw out the state of Maryland’s bid to protect the healthcare law, known as Obamacare, in a ruling that also sidestepped a decision on whether President Donald Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general was lawful. In a win for the Republican president, Baltimore-based U.S. District…

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Invites Pharma Execs to Testify

Reuters Staff  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—A powerful U.S. Senate committee on has invited seven pharmaceutical companies to testify at a hearing later this month examining rising prescription drug prices. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the committee, invited executives from AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca PLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.,…

RA Effectiveness Differs Among Non-TNF Inhibitors

Will Boggs, MD  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) outcomes are better with some non-TNF inhibitors than with others, according to French registry data. “Previously, indirect comparisons (meta-analyses) did not show any difference between biologics in terms of effectiveness,” Dr. Jacques-Eric Gottenberg from Strasbourg University Hospital, France, tells Reuters Health by email. “Our direct comparison using observational data…

Walking Ability of OA Patients Linked to Cardiovascular Risk

Arthritis Care & Research  |  

New research explores the association of the ability to walk and the risk of cardiovascular disease in OA patients compared with the general population. During the study, researchers recorded a six-minute walking distance and measured arterial stiffness of participants. The results: Even among younger people, OA patients could not walk as far as those in the general population. Also, arterial stiffness was inversely associated with walking distance, suggesting walking is important to the cardiovascular risk profile of OA patients…

U.S. Lawmaker Yarmuth Says Democrats to Begin Medicare for All Hearings

Yasmeen Abutaleb and Susan Cornwell  |  

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Democrats in control of the U.S. House of Representatives will begin holding hearings on expanding Medicare this spring and will aim to pass a bill by the end of next year, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Tuesday. John Yarmuth, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said in an interview with Reuters that the…

What Do JIA Patients Experience? A New Case Study from the ARP Practice Committee

Talitha Cox, OT, MA, on behalf of the ARP Practice Committee  |  

What does a new patient experience as symptoms develop and diagnosis is confirmed? The ARP Practice Committee is developing persona-based case studies to help answer this and other questions. The latest topic is juvenile idiopathic arthritis…

Does Loss of Skeletal Muscle Mass Increase the Risk of Knee OA?

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Obesity is a well-known risk factor for knee osteoarthritis (OA), but data regarding the association of body composition (fat and muscle mass) with the risk of knee OA are lacking. Thus, it is not clear whether the effects of BMI, typically interpreted as effects of obesity, are truly due to excess adiposity rather than to overall loading due to the combined weight of body mass. Misra et al. undertook this study to examine the longitudinal association of body composition categories based on fat and muscle mass with the risk of incident knee OA…