ACR Convergence 2025| Video: Rheuminations on Milestones & Ageism

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Search results for: infliximab

Valeant Prices Psoriasis Treatment at $3,500 Per Month

Reuters Staff  |  

(Reuters)—Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said it had priced its recently approved plaque psoriasis treatment at $3,500 per month, ahead of an expected U.S. launch in the second half of 2017. Brodalumab (Siliq) is the lowest priced injectable biologic psoriasis treatment currently on the market, Valeant says. Drugmakers are facing intense criticism from…

Drug Reduction Strategies, Disease Control for Patients with RA in Remission

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Clinical aspects of managing patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in remission were discussed by a panel of experts at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting during the session titled Rheumatoid Arthritis—Clinical Aspects IV: Managing Patients in Remission. Among the issues raised were strategies to taper or discontinue biologic therapies, as well as clinical predictors of…

Rheumatology Coding Corner Question: Billing Infusion Procedure with JW Modifier

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An 82-year-old female established patient diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis in multiple joints returns to the office for her second infliximab infusion. She denies any fevers, cough or concurrent illness. Her joint pain is 7 on a scale of 1–10. She complains of achy pain in the cervical, lumbar and sacral regions of her spine. She…

Rheumatology Coding Corner Answer: Billing Infusion Procedure with JW Modifier

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Take the challenge. CPT: 99214-25, 96413, 96375, 96361-59, J1745 x 4 J1745 JW* x 36, J1200 x1 ICD-10: M45.09, T50.995A, R06.02, E66.3, Z68.2 Rationale Modifier 25 is appropriate to use because it indicates the patient received a significant, separately identifiable E/M service on the same day as the infliximab infusion. This E/M service entailed the…

Biosimilar Drugs Raise Questions around Treatment Efficacy, Quality, Safety

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Challenges abound for the manufacturing of biosimilar drugs—from their sheer size compared with small molecule drugs to the unknowable proprietary aspects of the originator drugs—an expert said at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in a session titled Immunology Update: Biologic Agents: From Nature to Protein Engineering to Biosimilars. Above all, because biosimilars are copies…

Diagnosis of Acute Gouty Arthritis Obscured by Anchoring Bias

Diagnosis of Acute Gouty Arthritis Obscured by Anchoring Bias

Sneha Patel, MD, Monica Mohile, MD, & Arundathi Jayatilleke, MD  |  

A 56-year-old African American man presents to the emergency department with polyarthralgias and a fever of 103ºF. One month prior to admission, he presented with right knee pain and swelling. Blood cultures grew S. epidermidis. He was treated for presumed septic arthritis complicated by MSSE bacteremia. He was treated with meropenem and a prolonged course…

Cancer Risk for Patients with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Taking TNF Inhibitors

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients taking TNF inhibitors don’t develop new cancers at a higher rate than JIA patients who don’t take TNF inhibitors, according to the largest study so far conducted to study the possible link. The findings were reported at the 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in an abstract session that also included…

Comparative Assessment of the Different ACR/EULAR Remission Definitions for RA for Their Use as Clinical Trial End Points

Arthritis & Rheumatology  |  

Significant advances have been made in the treatment of RA over the past 20 years, and with the hope of developing even more effective therapeutics, achieving a very low level of disease activity, such as remission, is an important outcome to be examined. The ACR and EULAR have defined remission using Boolean- or index-based criteria. The researchers undertook this study to compare definitions of remission to inform choice of end points for future RA clinical trials and included in their comparison the remission criterion of a score of ≤2.8 on the Clinical Disease Activity Index…

Anti-Interleukin-6 Therapy for Erdheim-Chester Disease Warrants Study

Stefanie D. Wade, MD, Michael A. Seidman, MD, Edward C. Jones, MD, Arnold Radu, MD, Ryan Paterson, MD, Vikram Deshpande, MD, John H. Stone, MD, & Mollie N. Carruthers, MD  |  

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare, non-Langerhan’s cell histiocytosis characterized by tissue infiltration of CD68-positive and CD1a-negative foamy histiocytes.1 ECD was discovered as a lipid granulomatosis in 1930 by Jakob Erdheim and his pupil, William Chester, and approximately 500 cases have been described to date.1 ECD has a heterogeneous course and prognosis ranging from an…