At least 6% of patients who used biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) suffered refractory disease, according to a recent study based on data from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Registry for Rheumatoid Arthritis.1 This observational study evaluated the extent of biologic refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The study defined biologic refractory disease as occurring in…
A new study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published in the September 2018 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, identifies risk factors and clinical features associated with severe gastrointestinal (GI) dysmotility in patients with systemic sclerosis.1 The findings suggest a distinct pathological process may be at work in this patient group, says lead…
What happens when systemic sclerosis (SSc) overlaps with other systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases? Patients with either diffuse cutaneous or limited cutaneous SSc sometimes develop systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as well. A new, large cohort study published in the Journal of Rheumatology reveals details on the epidemiology, clinical signs and survival data of SSc-SLE overlap syndrome.1…
Psoriatic arthritis came to be viewed as a distinct disease entity with specific clinical features, genetics and pathophysiology only gradually. One important historic development in this transition was a 1973 paper written by a pair of researchers out of Leeds, England: John M. Moll, BSc, DM, and Verna Wright, MD, FRCP.1 Here we discuss the…
Eosinophilic fasciitis generally presents with the acute onset of edema followed by progressive skin induration in the setting of hypergammaglobulinemia, an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and peripheral eosinophilia in 63–93% of patients.1,2 Skin involvement is typically limited to 20.1% of total body surface area and most commonly involves the extremities symmetrically.1,3 The condition was…
The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) was launched in 2014 as a public-private partnership to spur development of new therapeutic options for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Five years in, this unprecedented public-private effort is achieving its major milestones and yielding tools to accelerate potential new drug discoveries. The Rheumatology Research Foundation is…
Presentation A 30-year-old woman presented to her rheumatologist for left foot pain of three weeks’ duration. She was followed for systemic lupus erythematosus manifesting in arthritis and hemolytic anemia, as well as anti-nuclear antibody and Smith antibody positivity, and was treated with hydroxychloroquine and prednisone in the 2.5–10 mg per day range. She was symptom…
Stroke and transient ischemia are the most common cerebrovascular events in lupus patients, and a new study has found most of these occurrences can be attributed to lupus itself rather than other causes. The study, published in the October 2018 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, looked at the frequency, association and outcomes of cerebrovascular…
Over the past few years, biosimilars and other new drugs have been introduced to treat rheumatic illnesses. Some of the conditions we treat have numerous drug option; others have few or only off-label options. This series, “Rheumatology Drugs at a Glance,” provides streamlined information on the administration of biologic, biosimilar and other medications used to…
In a recent investigation of Swedish patients, environmental triggers of the immune system are a common factor for patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome…