Rheumatology

The Sinovac inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine elicits a reduced antibody response in people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases compared with healthy controls, but the short-term immunogenicity is adequate, researchers report.

Click through for more information on this update

People with giant cell arteritis have an elevated risk for all-cause mortality relative to the general population, particularly within the first year following diagnosis, researchers report.

Tramadol is associated with improved pain and function among patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis, but this does not necessarily equate to a clinically significant benefit, Chinese study findings indicate.

Most patients with rheumatoid arthritis and stable low disease activity can switch from TNF inhibitor therapy to tacrolimus as maintenance without experiencing flare-ups, researchers report.

Steroid-naive patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a dose- and duration-dependent increased risk for cardiovascular events following glucocorticoid initiation, real-world study data show.

Treatment with the IL-1β inhibitor canakinumab does not improve the likelihood of survival without invasive mechanical ventilation among hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 and systemic hyperinflammation, suggest findings from the CAN-COVID trial.

People with newly-diagnosed polymyositis or dermatomyositis have a significantly higher 10-year risk for heart failure hospitalization than people who do not have these conditions, suggests research conducted in Taiwan.

The US FDA has approved intravenous immunoglobulin for the treatment of dermatomyositis in adults.

Study findings suggest that approximately one-third of patients with rheumatoid arthritis have long-term unacceptable pain, despite control of inflammation in the majority of these people.

Guselkumab improves axial symptoms relative to placebo in people with axial psoriatic arthritis and radiographic evidence of sacroiliitis, shows a post-hoc analysis of the DISCOVER-1 and DISCOVER-2 studies.

Rheumatoid arthritis and COVID-19 pneumonitis share some common pathogenic pathways that could be targeted in the development of treatment strategies for COVID-19, researchers report.

Patients who have granulomatosis with polyangiitis and high blood eosinophil levels at diagnosis are more likely to have severe disease and skin and neurological involvement than those with lower levels, French study findings indicate.

Treatment with IL-6 receptor antagonists is associated with a reduction in 28-day mortality risk among hospitalized patients with COVID-19, suggest findings from a meta-analysis published in JAMA.

The American College of Rheumatology and the Vasculitis Foundation have issued joint guidelines for the management of various types of vasculitis.

UK research suggests there is a disparity between humoral and cellular immune responses to the first dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in people on methotrexate monotherapy for psoriasis.

People with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, have a higher comorbidity burden than people without these conditions, even in the early stages of the disease, researchers report.

Ustekinumab and tumor necrosis factor inhibitors lead to similar rates of low disease activity when given as first- to third-line therapies in people with psoriatic arthritis, show results of a European observational study.

More patients of Black African ancestry with systemic lupus erythematosus respond to belimumab than placebo, but unlike in pivotal clinical trials, in which this group was underrepresented, the difference was not significant, say EMBRACE researchers.

Rituximab is well tolerated and shows good efficacy in children with granulomatosis with polyangiitis or microscopic polyangiitis, global phase 2a study findings indicate.