Predictors of complete remission in SLE identified
Author: Hannah Kitt medwireNews: Research has revealed factors associated with complete remission in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including lack of renal involvement and antiphospholipid syndrome, White ethnicity, and older age at diagnosis. The investigators also found that people who did not achieve any sustained remission had a higher risk for early mortality than those […]
Targeted therapy not linked to serious infection risk in older people with RA
Author: Laura Cowen medwireNews: Older people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are not at increased risk for hospitalization with infection when receiving targeted therapy with biologics or Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors rather than methotrexate, Japanese researchers report. Masayoshi Harigai (Tokyo Women’s Medical University School of Medicine) and colleagues used Japanese insurance claims data to identify 22,696 individuals […]
DMARD treatment has ‘profound anticoagulant effects’ in early RA
Author: Claire Barnard medwireNews: Analysis of data from the NORD-STAR study suggests that people with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have increased levels of coagulation biomarkers, putting them at increased risk for venous thromboembolism, and initial treatment with DMARDs can help reduce this imbalance. Bas Dijkshoorn (Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center, the Netherlands) and colleagues analyzed […]
Telemedicine in rheumatology: COVID-19 and beyond
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telehealth has increased in rheumatology practice, in line with many other areas of medicine, to enable healthcare delivery while reducing patients’ and providers’ risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here we take a look at how telemedicine is used in rheumatology, explore the advantages and disadvantages, and outline what the […]
Rituximab use in the COVID-19 era: Striking the right balance
With rituximab-treated patients having an elevated risk for severe COVID-19 and a reduced likelihood of responding to vaccines, Sebastian Sattui and David Jayne discuss how these challenges can be addressed and explore the future role of the drug for the treatment of rheumatic diseases (13:17) https://www.youtube.com/embed/qdduVX3etQI 00:00 Introduction to the speakers00:26 The current situation with rituximab and […]
ORAL Surveillance: Tofacitinib fails to show noninferiority vs TNF inhibitors for MACE, malignancy risk
Author: Claire Barnard medwireNews: The Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib is associated with numerically higher rates of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and malignancy than tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at high cardiovascular (CV) risk, show the ORAL Surveillance results. Five presentations at the ACR Convergence 2021 virtual meeting covered results from […]
JAK inhibitor safety: Distilling the evidence
Peter Nash discusses the latest evidence on the association between JAK inhibitors and the risk for VTE, MACE, and malignancy medwireNews: Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors are the newest class of drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with three JAK inhibitors now approved by the US FDA and four by the EMA (figure 1). […]
Risankizumab for PsA: How will the KEEPsAKE 1 and 2 findings impact clinical practice?
Speaker: Laura Coates Laura Coates comments on the results of the KEEPsAKE 1 and 2 studies, and explores where risankizumab may fit in the treatment landscape for psoriatic arthritis (5.10) https://www.youtube.com/embed/x06FLukJIjY?modestbranding=1&rel=0 Transcript So the KEEPsAKE 1 and 2 trials have looked at the efficacy and safety of risankizumab in patients with active psoriatic arthritis. And […]
COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance study finds link between RA treatment and COVID-19 severity
Jeffrey Sparks and Zachary Wallace talk about the potential for COVID-19 being more severe in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with rituximab or JAK inhibitors rather than TNF inhibitors (8:06). https://www.youtube.com/embed/7C_6-gLT8os?modestbranding=0&rel=0 Transcript We performed our study among rheumatoid arthritis patients, all of whom had COVID-19 and all of which were being treated with either biologic or […]
Top tips on telerheumatology
We asked Chris Phillips and Aruni Jayatilleke, both authors on the American College of Rheumatology’s telemedicine position statement, to share their top tips on how to provide the best care via telemedicine. https://www.youtube.com/embed/qbJecKRqMSs?modestbranding=0&rel=0https://www.youtube.com/embed/a3cGdQuLru0?modestbranding=0&rel=0 About the experts Aruni Jayatilleke Aruni Jayatilleke, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program […]