Presentation A 26-year-old man with a history of acne vulgaris and hidradenitis suppurativa presented to our rheumatology clinic with persistent back pain and stiffness of three years’ duration. He described bilateral low back pain that was worse when he arose in the morning and at night when he was trying to sleep. In a similar…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Ixekizumab improves signs and symptoms in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (ankylosing spondylitis), according to results from the COAST-W study. “Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic and debilitating disease, and I have a large number of patients who have failed TNF inhibitors,” says Dr. Atul Deodhar from Oregon Health and Science University, Portland….
AMSTERDAM—As more biosimilar drugs for rheumatic diseases make their way to market, evidence is growing that switching from the originator drug to a biosimilar tends to be effective, while the questions of switching back and forth, and switching multiple times using several different biosimilars, remain to be answered, an expert on the topic said at…
Technology in medicine is no longer new or trendy. It’s pervasive. Rheumatologists may now assume a patient has searched online for information about his or her diagnosis or potential therapies. Both physicians and rheumatology health professionals should acknowledge their patients’ Internet surfing and find out what they’ve read, says Betsy Roth-Wojcicki, RN, MS, CPNP, an…
In a Phase 3 study, ixekizumab proved safe and effective to treat adults with ankylosing spondylitis (AS)…
With the support of its membership, the ACR publishes clinical practice guidelines in multiple disease areas based on the best available clinical and scientific data. These aim to support health professionals treating rheumatology patients to give the best possible care. Like any set of medical guidelines, ACR guidelines are based on evidence of several different…
SAN DIEGO—Top researchers gathered for a review course at the start of the 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in November to describe new research, their own treatment strategies and new ways of thinking about an array of rheumatic diseases. Here are the highlights: Raynaud’s & Other Digit Problems When a patient walks into your clinic with…
Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in the joints of patients may drive the pathology of spondyloarthritis through the production of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). A recent study found that both GM-CSF-producing CD4 T cells and the GM-CSF+ Th17 cells expressed high levels of GPR65—indicating that both GM-CSF and GPR65 may be therapeutic targets for spondyloarthritis…
In the EU, certolizumab pegol has been approved for use in pregnant and nursing women with chronic rheumatic disease…
What factors drive inflammation and progressive disease in ankylosing spondylitis (AS)? The answers have long eluded rheumatologists. Although 90% of patients with AS test positive for the HLA-B27 gene, pieces remain missing in our understanding of this chronic, inflammatory disease, which often leads to pain, spinal fusion and, in about half of patients, gut involvement,…