A new review examined how drug-free interventions affect pain relief and analgesic consumption for patients who have had knee surgery. Although little evidence shows these treatments reduce actual pain, electrotherapy and acupuncture may help patients delay their postoperative use of opioids…
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…
MADRID—Calcification in osteoarthritis (OA) involves a series of pathways and interactions that feed off each other in a process that bears some resemblance to the transformation of cartilage to bone that takes place in the embryonic stage of human development, a researcher said here at the 2017 Annual European Congress on Rheumatology (EULAR). “My hypothesis…
MADRID—Determining what is a best practice in rheumatology and then implementing improvements based on what you find can be fraught with complexity, an expert said during the 2017 Annual European Congress on Rheumatology (EULAR). Examples are emerging of benchmarking projects in which electronic registers are used to improve patient care, said William Dixon, MD, chair…
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…
A recent study, conducted by the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium and funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), examined whether the addition of abatacept, a drug that affects T cell activation, to standard prednisone treatment could reduce the risk of relapse in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA).1 Although…
Editor’s note: The new Pillar Talk column is developed by the ARHP Executive Committee in an effort to share information about ongoing activities related to our four pillars: Education, Practice, Research and Advocacy. ARHP volunteers are actively involved in the ACR’s efforts to advocate for the care of our patients and the rheumatology professionals who…
What is RheumPAC? RheumPAC is the ACR’s nonpartisan political action committee (PAC) that works to elect and support pro-rheumatology candidates. It is the only PAC dedicated to the interests of the rheumatology profession. RheumPAC was created 10 years ago with the mission of educating, electing and supporting federal lawmakers who understand and can positively address…
The Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) Registry is the ACR’s registry for quality improvement and reporting. Aggregated statistics and trends seen in the RISE Registry will be published monthly in The Rheumatologist. If you have questions about quality reporting, are interested in enrolling in RISE or would like to use data from RISE for…