Rheumatology

Researchers called for standardized health outcome descriptors to help bridge communication gaps in rheumatology care and improve shared decision-making.

Osteoarthritis leads the burden, projected to affect 50% of postmenopausal women by 2045.

Tocilizumab alone and in combination with methotrexate outperformed the latter drug in patients who did not adequately respond to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

Iron deficiency anemia increased the risk of death from any cause, while non-iron deficiency anemia was linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related death in rheumatoid arthritis.

Individuals with rheumatoid arthritis face a higher risk of hospitalization for heart failure and pulmonary edema, a new report found.

New research suggests classical biomarkers cannot discriminate between refractory and non-refractory rheumatoid arthritis.

The Patient-Centered Rheumatology Collaborative identified several critical areas for further intervention to improve the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

The top 5 most-read rheumatology articles of 2022 covered the topics of management of inflammatory arthritis and new inflammatory protein identification.

Fibromyalgia is a common pain syndrome that affects women twice as much as men.

Methotrexate dampens the immune response to vaccines, and a recent study showed that discontinuing treatment for 1 week instead of 2 worked just as well for patients with rheumatoid arthritis getting a flu shot.

Results indicate early initiation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors in a veterans population was associated with a 17% increase in incident cardiovascular disease and a 22% increase in major events.

The latest update says that Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors should only be used if risk factors for cardiovascular disease or cancer have been considered, and that biologics are preferred.

The program, serving patients from rheumatology, dermatology, gastroenterology, allergy, and cardiology clinics, is the first of its kind within the Veterans Health Administration, researchers said.

In a proof-of-concept analysis, researchers show that machine learning methods paired with longitudinal patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data were able to classify subsequent rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity after beginning treatment with a biologic

Risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) stem from disease-specific causes, disease treatment, and factors that face the general population, according to researchers, who highlighted the importance of assessing risk factors in these patients.

The study, which assessed changes in circRNA and miRNA after beginning treatment with secukinumab, revealed a prompt change in circRNA abundance upon initiation of treatment and a strong correlation between circRNA and the psoriasis area and severity index.

Based on their findings, the researchers are emphasizing the importance of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receiving a booster vaccination, as well as other mitigation strategies, such as social distancing and wearing face masks.

However, patient-reported scores were not significantly better in the tocilizumab group.

At 12 weeks, nearly 8 in 10 patients had significant improvement.

The findings, produced over a 4-year period, indicate the protein sulfatase-2 (Sulf-2) may be a therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

The study analyzed 20 clinical prediction models (CPMs) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), all of which were deemed to have a high risk of bias, leading the researchers to urge against their use to guide decision-making without addressing their limitations.

Data from a literature review of 41 studies were analyzed and subsequently leveraged to create a survey among physicians on the use of 4 targeted therapies in systemic sclerosis-interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD).

This analysis of 5 studies found that, compared with placebo, all biologic regimens improved Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 90 response—considered a gold standard goal due to its correlation with quality of life.

Machine learning models collected using a crowdsourcing approach that provide feasible, quick, and accurate methods to quantify joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) could potentially be incorporated into electronic health records.

About 1 in 7 people with systematic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SJIA) will not respond to interleukin-1 or interleukin-6 inhibitors.