CHICAGO—Held during the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, the ACR Review Course covered a wide range of topics for rheumatologists—from advances in pain and rheumatic disease management to the intersection of rheumatology and neurology. Session speakers shared insights, as well as state-of-the-art approaches to diagnosis, management and treatment. Inflammatory Myopathies Julie J. Paik, MD, MHS, assistant…
(Reuters Health)—Patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) can add hip-strengthening exercises to their workout to improve the ability to walk and maybe reduce pain, according to a research review. Based on pooled data from eight clinical trials with a total of 340 patients, hip strengthening exercises involving weights or elastic bands would help the most, the…
CHICAGO—Is erosive, inflammatory osteoarthritis (EOA) a separate condition from osteoarthritis (OA)? Roberta Ramonda, MD, PhD, a rheumatologist at the University of Padova, Italy, spoke at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting on the clinical presentation of EOA and how it differs from OA. EOA is characterized by a frequent aggressive clinical course and occurs most often…
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…
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…
An FDA advisory committee voted 18-1 in favor of approving romosozumab to treat postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
In a recent Phase 2 clinical trial, patient-perceived pain and function measures improved with SM04690, an injectable, disease-modifying osteoarthritis treatment currently in development…
A recent study found that clinical practice guidelines for osteoporosis screening vary in quality and recommendations—even within the same country. Assessing guidelines from 13 countries, researchers found osteoporosis screening standards have not improved over time and many fail to include patients in guideline development…
CHICAGO—Joint trauma is one of many potential drivers of osteoarthritis disease activity and structural progression. In Post-Traumatic OA: Pathogenesis, Clinical Evolution and Management, a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, experts discussed the effects of sports and other injuries on even young patients’ joints. Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA) may account for 12% of hip, knee…
CHICAGO—Many nonsurgical therapies are available for knee osteoarthritis pain, but they vary greatly in effectiveness. “How should I proceed and figure out what to do with our patients?” asked David T. Felson, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, during OA Management Without Surgery in 2018, a session at the 2018…