Our hospitals have had their finest hour in the care of acutely ill inpatients during the COVID-19 pandemic, including dealing with allocation decisions fairly and transparently, maximizing good outcomes and remaining cognizant of the enduring ethics of healthcare. The honorable traditions of self-effacing conduct and acceptance of some level of personal risk by healthcare professionals…
An observational study found treatment with tofacitinib resulted in only a slightly higher rate of venous thromboembolism than tumor necrosis factor inhibitors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
EULAR 2020 e-CONGRESS—In what speakers at the European e-Congress of Rheumatology described as the first treat-to-target and tight control (T2T/TC) strategy trial in axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA), researchers found such a strategy has both health and financial benefits. In the year-long study—called TICOSPA—centers were randomized to apply either a T2T/TC strategy or care left to the…
Editor’s note: EULAR 2020, the annual European Congress of Rheumatology, which was originally scheduled to be held in Frankfurt, Germany, starting June 3, was moved to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EULAR 2020 e-CONGRESS—Although reducing medications is a reasonable option for some patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)—reducing cost and giving them a…
(Reuters Health)—Age-adjusted hip fracture incidence has declined in the U.S. over the past four decades, aided by a decline in smoking and alcohol consumption, a new study suggests. Researchers examined data on 4,918 men and 5,634 women who participated in the prospective Framingham Heart Study from 1970 to 2010. Overall, the age-adjusted incidence of hip…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Interleukin (IL) 1 beta is a key player in the osteoarthritis (OA) inflammatory process and inhibiting it may help slow the disease process, according to an exploratory analysis of data from the CANTOS trial.1 CANTOS participants who were treated with the IL-1-beta inhibitor canakinumab had a significantly lower rate of total hip…
The recommendations for MIS-C focus on general guidance, diagnostic evaluation and therapy options, as well as comparing and contrasting the features of MIS-C and Kawasaki disease.
Rheumatologists should not be falsely reassured by a normal mean blood pressure in lupus patients, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University that found age-related blood pressure patterns in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) differ from the general population and that increased diastolic blood pressure variability (BPV) is highly associated with cardiovascular events in SLE.1…
Given how unexpectedly front and center hydroxychloroquine has been in discussions about the treatment of COVID-19 this year, it makes sense to look at how it became so central to the treatment of a rheumatologic condition. In 1991, an article appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine that would alter the way rheumatologists approached…
In May, the ACR released a new treatment guideline for the management of gout for simultaneous publication in Arthritis & Rheumatology and Arthritis Care & Research.1 Based on evidence from more than 130 published studies, the guideline makes a total of 42 recommendations—of which 16 are strong: It has 27 recommendations for urate-lowering therapy (ULT)…