As treatments for psoriatic arthritis (PsA) emerge, a clinical trial comparing the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor upadacitinib and the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor adalimumab provided some new insights. Published earlier this year in The New England Journal of Medicine, the SELECT-PsA 1, double-blind, phase 3 trial found that a 30 mg dose of upadacitinib…
The impressive progress of medical knowledge and technology reinforces our trust in the scientific methodology that made it all possible. However, that progress also creates risks related to the primary goal of medical care: to serve our patients’ interests and enjoyment of life in the best possible way. In this article we present our views…
About 30% of patients with psoriasis have psoriatic arthritis (PsA), a complex, multi-faceted, chronic, inflammatory musculoskeletal and skin disease for which the treatment has changed considerably over the past few years.1 Biosimilars and other new drugs have become a therapeutic turning point for many patients suffering from rheumatic illnesses, including PsA. The treatment of PsA…
On Oct. 8, ChemoCentryx Inc. announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved avacopan (TAVNEOS), an orally administered selective complement 5a receptor inhibitor, as an adjunctive treatment of adult patients with severe active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis (ANCA-associated vasculitis), specifically granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) (the two main forms…
Contraception, disease control, family planning and managing life with an infant—five experts addressed these concerns and more for patients with rheumatic disease during a special online webinar.
A recent paper illustrates how using different fibromyalgia criteria affects reports of its prevalence.1 Writing in Arthritis Care & Research, researchers found the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks–American Pain Society Pain Taxonomy (AAPT) criteria caused far more people to be categorized as having fibromyalgia than criteria put forth by…
Sarcoidosis and IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) are both immune-mediated, often multi-organ, diseases of uncertain etiology capable of presenting with diverse clinical manifestations. Many clinical features are common to both conditions, including hypergammaglobulinemia, the ability to form inflammatory masses and involvement of the lymph nodes, lacrimal glands, salivary glands, meninges and lungs. Although imaging modalities, such as…
The incidence of drug-induced lupus continues to rise as clinicians expand their therapeutic armamentarium. An estimated 15,000–30,000 cases of drug-induced lupus occur every year in the U.S. alone.1 It is a well-known, but rare, complication of commonly used medications, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-arrhythmic and anti-epileptic drugs, as well as biologic and immune checkpoint therapies.2,3 The…
Research indicates mRNA vaccination for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection may induce a T cell response in vulnerable, immunocompromised patient populations being treated with rituximab.
Pulmonary manifestations in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) include pleuritis, acute pneumonitis, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary arterial hypertension, shrinking lung syndrome and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH). DAH is a rare, but devastating, complication of SLE, with high mortality rates. The incidence of DAH in SLE ranges from 0.6% to 5.4%, but the mortality rate…