Rheum for Everyone, Episode 24 (video)| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

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

Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders

Osteoporosis Drugs Tied to Lower Fracture Risk & Health Costs

Lisa Rapaport  |  

(Reuters Health)—Older women with osteoporosis who consistently take a bisphosphonate may have a lower risk of fractures and lower total health costs than their counterparts who stop taking these drugs, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on 294,369 women who were at least 66 years old, insured by Medicare and prescribed osteoporosis medicines for…

Pfizer-Lilly Pain Drug Meets Late-Stage Trial Goals

Manas Mishra  |  

(Reuters)—An experimental osteoarthritis drug developed by Pfizer Inc and Eli Lilly and Co achieved its main goal of lowering pain in a late stage trial, the companies said on Wednesday, potentially offering a safer alternative to opioids. Opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and drugmakers have been looking for less addictive…

Don’t Rule Out Placebos for Osteoarthritis Pain Control

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CHICAGO—The placebo effect in treating pain in osteoarthritis (OA) should not be discounted, an expert said at the ACR State-of-the-Art Clinical Sym­posium in April. It’s especially important to accept the effect as real considering that trials of pain therapies in OA generate such high placebo effects (typically at least 40%) and that OA treatment options,…

Improve Your Recognition & Treatment of Osteoporosis

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BALTIMORE—Rheumatologists may not think about osteoporosis on a daily basis, but they should, said Dr. Karl Insogna, the Ensign Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and director of the Yale Bone Center in New Haven, Conn., in his recent lecture at the Maryland Society for the Rheumatic Diseases. With approximately 75 million…

Tips to Get Knee Replacement Patients to Increase Their Physical Activity

Linda Childers  |  

Although total knee replacement (TKR) surgery can improve pain and function in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (OA), many patients who are sedentary before undergoing TKR don’t increase their physical activity levels after surgery. A new study led by Elena Losina, PhD, of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, examined…

Serum Bone Markers CTX, PINP Not Linked with Hip Fracture Risk in Osteoporosis

Anne Harding  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Levels of two bone markers currently recommended for evaluating postmenopausal women with osteoporosis have no association with hip fracture risk, according to a new study using Women’s Health Initiative data. “At least in these postmenopausal women, it was not a useful endeavor to check bone turnover markers to predict hip-fracture risk. That…

Romosozumab Improves Bone Mineral Density in Men with Osteoporosis

Anne Harding  |  

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Romosozumab improves bone mineral density (BMD) in men with osteoporosis, but safety concerns are holding up its approval in the U.S. Up to 2 million men in the U.S. have osteoporosis, and up to 13 million have osteopenia, researchers note in a report online June 20 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology…

BMD Not a Reliable Predictor of Vertebral Fragility Fracture in Older Women

Scott Baltic  |  

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…

When Is It Appropriate to Discontinue Bisphosphonates?

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CHICAGO—A 75-year-old woman with low bone density, who has had a fracture and has other risk factors for fracture, is treated with the bisphosphonate alendronate. After five years on the drug she comes back, wondering: Should I stop taking the drug? She’s had no additional fractures. Her bone density has improved, but her lumbar spine…