American College of Rheumatology

New data supports the use of etanercept as a monotherapy, or in combination, for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had inadequate response to previous biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs found greater pain relief when taking 2 mg or 4 mg of baricitinib compared with placebo.

The findings led the team to believe a focus on treatment strategy, rather than disease activity, is more indicative of aortic distensibility improvement.

Data from the SELECT-MONOTHERAPY trial in patients with rheumatoid arthritis show that upadacitinib improved outcomes in pain, physical function, health-related quality of life, and morning stiffness.

Obesity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis has been found to influence the effectiveness of JAKi inhibitor treatments.

Eric M. Ruderman, MD, addresses adverse events and toxicities in patients taking disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

Investigators assessed the risk of developing malignancies or serious infections with JAK inhibitors for RA treatment.

Patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who are cs/bDMARD-naïve may see a greater reduction in pain and improvement in physical function on baricitinib monotherapy compared with monotherapy of tocilizumab or adalimumab.

Periods of moderate-to-vigorous intensity walking (instead of non-walking) was associated with less risk of total knee replacement over 5 years in patients who have, or who are at high risk of, osteoarthritis of the knee.

The following medications were decreased most frequently and also associated with the greatest impact in terms of reduction of annual cost: adalimumab, etanercept, and rituximab.

In a study announced at the 2016 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, lupus patients with less education were also likely to wait longer for referral to a specialist.

“This is a subset of the RA population that we should probably give intensive treatment to," Dr. Harrold says of RA patients diagnosed with certain prognosis factors. "Not only clinical adverse sequelae, but also in their social environment, like being able to work or function.”

Asked to assume equal cost-effectiveness, the patients were given eight facets of treatment and asked to rank them between 1 and 8, with 1 being the most important to them and 8 being the least.

A research team from the University of Delaware sought to see how much strength one would need, how fast they needed to walk, and how far they needed to walk to achieve a sufficient 6,000 steps in a day, and found that most knee OA patients surpassed their thresholds.

With extensive literature review and expert input, the ACR and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) have come together to propose a set of guidelines for medication during the perioperative period for patients undergoing knee or hip arthroplasty.

Used for treatment of inflammation in rheumatic diseases, glucocorticoids are known to cause osteoporosis. The American College of Rheumatology has put forth new recommendations to hopefully decrease the frequency of bone fractures.

Prescribing rheumatologists discussed drug interactions, costs, contraindications, and severity of side effects with less than 50% of the patients in the study to whom they had prescribed disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.

With ever-growing data that the inflammation in rheumatic conditions can go hand-in-hand with cardiovascular inflammation, two different studies seek to broaden rheumatology’s approach to dangerous conditions it may influence.

Nancy Lane, MD, shared a rheumatologist's perspective in treating patients who suffer pain and osteoporosis.

Nancy Lane, MD, discussed her team's study on abaloparatide, a new preparation of a hormone, and how it can stimulate bone formation.

Speaking at ACR 2016, the current chair of the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN) presented data that showed that a combination of inflammatory drugs may inhibit ankylosis, the painful fusion of bones.

According to Lori Fitzpatrick, MD, additional findings showed that regardless of age, whether or not patients have had vertebral or non-vertebral fractures, treatment with abaloparatide worked.

Abaloparatide-sc can benefit postmenopausal women with osteoporosis by helping increase greater bone mineral density, since building bone strength is important for these women's health.

A new study out of Ireland examined the prevalence of extra-articular manifestations in axial spondyloarthritis, and found that women were at significantly higher risk for inflammatory bowel disease and uveitis than men.

A report out of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shows a reduction in hip disease progression in ankylosing spondylitis patients who receive anti-tumor necrotics factor treatment.

Certain types of inflammation go hand-in-hand. Columbia University researchers hypothesized that treatment that lowered arthritis disease activity would also decrease the risk of heart failure.

Philip Mease shared that he and his team are in the midst of preparing the content of the studies for publication to ensure continued education of psoriatic arthritis treatment.

At the ACR/ARHP annual meeting in Washington, DC, Philip Mease, MD, Swedish Medical Center, University of Washington, discussed the highlights from two psoriatic arthritis studies, OPAL Broaden and OPAL Beyond.

In a post-hoc analysis, researchers found that the clinical efficacy of tofacitinib after 6 months of treatment was greater than placebo, and appeared similar regardless of methotrexate dose.

A review of six Phase 3 studies shows that tofacitinib is more effective for rheumatoid arthritis treatment than regimens including placebo and a disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug or methotrexate as monotherapy or in combination therapy.