CHICAGO—In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), most types of severe pulmonary manifestations are relatively rare, but it’s crucial they be caught because of the potentially dire consequences, said Richard Silver, MD, professor in the Rheumatology Division at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Pulmonary Manifestations Parenchymal disease—seen in the…
New evidence from a clinical trial of rituximab has identified the pathogenetic role of B cells in the earliest, pre-arthritis stage of autoantibody-positive RA…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) outcomes are better with some non-TNF inhibitors than with others, according to French registry data. “Previously, indirect comparisons (meta-analyses) did not show any difference between biologics in terms of effectiveness,” Dr. Jacques-Eric Gottenberg from Strasbourg University Hospital, France, tells Reuters Health by email. “Our direct comparison using observational data…
The FDA has approved Truxima (rituximab-abbs), which is biosimilar to Rituxan (rituximab), for treating adults with CD20-positive, B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma…
Researchers sought to identify predictors of patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) who took rituximab for maintenance had a better sustained remission rate through 60 months than those taking azathioprine, according to the latest results from the maintenance of remission using rituximab in systemic ANCA-associated vasculitis (MAINRITSAN) trial, a prospective, randomized trial…
Rheumatologists prescribe rituximab for induction and maintenance treatment for anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitides (AAV). Maintenance treatment typically employs fixed-schedule dosing, but in the recent maintenance of remission using rituximab in systemic ANCA-associated vasculitis II (MAINRITSAN2) trial, researchers from the French Vasculitis Study Group examined whether individually tailored maintenance dosing might work better. “The…
Severe infections occurred in 25% of patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) who were treated with rituximab, according to results of an observational study conducted in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Austria. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX) prophylaxis, however, reduced the risk of severe infections, the investigators reported in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.1 Andreas…
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…
CHICAGO—About 30 years ago, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) began to outpace renal crisis as the main causes of death in scleroderma (SSc). But treating these lung complications has proved vexing for clinicians. There is no easy way to predict who will develop PAH. There is no telltale antibody and no…
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in connective tissue disease (CTD) features significant morbidity and mortality. Standard therapies with endothelin receptor antagonists and phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors have shown some clinical improvement in patients, but these clinical improvements have proved modest when compared with other types of PAH. As our case below suggests, rituximab may show promise as a…