MADRID—Tofacitinib (a JAK inhibitor) used with methotrexate (MTX) is not inferior to adalimumab (a TNF inhibitor) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who’ve had an inadequate response to MTX alone, according to results of a Phase 3B/4 trial presented in a session at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR). The findings came in a one-year…
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease associated with erosive destruction of diarthrodial joints. Patients who are seropositive are more prone to developing extra-articular manifestations, such as rheumatoid lung, rheumatoid nodules and others. With the development of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), the incidence and severity of these extra-articular manifestations has declined. Below, we describe…
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…
Nationally, opioid use and addiction are drawing increased scrutiny. An increase in the number of overdoses and addiction to heroin and prescription pain relievers in the past decade has been attributed in part to increased prescribing of opioids for the treatment of pain by physicians. National trends suggest the rate of opioid prescribing plateaued in…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Tofacitinib begun two to three weeks after live zoster vaccination does not impair immunogenicity, and vaccination appears to be safe in patients with pre-existing varicella zoster virus (VZV) immunity, researchers report. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are about twice as likely as healthy adults to develop herpes zoster, or shingles, and the…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Switching women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from oral bisphosphonates to teriparatide increases bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score, according to a new report. Researchers in Japan conducted an 18-month observational study of more than 175 women with RA (mean age: 66) who remained on oral bisphosphonates, switched to denosumab (DMAb),…
(Reuters Health)—Workers exposed to airborne toxins may have an elevated risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an immune system disorder that causes debilitating swelling and pain in the joints, a Swedish study suggests. Among men, bricklayers, concrete workers and electricians had at least twice the risk of RA they would have in certain other occupations,…
A recent study has helped researchers gain insight into the genome-wide regulation of mRNA stability in RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Chronic exposure of FLS to tumor necrosis factor appears to increase mRNA stability, enhancing the expression of inflammatory genes and the perpetuation of synovitis…
New research reinforces the hypothesis that the gut microbiome triggers mucosal and systemic immune responses in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The research, published in Arthritis & Rheumatology May 2017, found that subgroups of patients with RA have differential immunoglobulin G (IgG) or IgA immune reactivity with Prevotella copri, an intestinal microbe that appears to be…
A new measurement tool could mean big changes for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). With funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation, Gregg Silverman, MD, led a study that developed a means for the measurement of immunologic memory in autoimmune disease. This new tool will allow rheumatologists and investigators to measure the immunologic defects that…