Dermatology News

SAN DIEGO — While encouraging patients with cutaneous lupus erythematosus to use adequate sun protection, rheumatologists should be treating disease flares with more potent steroids then tapering off once other therapies are in progress, according to a presentation at the 2019 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.

Approximately 125 million people worldwide, including more than 8 million Americans, have psoriasis, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation. Between 10% and 30% of these patients will also develop psoriatic arthritis.

By the time Lilly Stairs was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis at the age of 19 — following an arduous series of tests and doctor visits — she had already been living with an autoimmune disease for 12 years.

Patients who received individualized advice directly from their general practitioner improved their sun protection, according to findings from a randomized controlled study.

Women of childbearing age with rheumatic diseases worldwide fail to receive appropriate information about the family planning and pregnancy continuum, according to findings presented at EULAR 2019. Healio Rheumatology took a closer look at the data and sat down with several key opinion leaders for a roundtable discussion to gain deeper understanding of how to resolve these issues.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of Amgen in its lawsuit against Novartis’ Sandoz, which claimed patent infringement on its biologic etanercept by the biosimilar, etanercept-szzs.

A healthy 14-year-old male presents with a rash on the sole of his left foot. He first noticed that there was something there 1 to 2 weeks earlier and that it was pruritic. There have been no other associated complaints, disturbing symptoms or fever. His past medical history is unremarkable, and his family history reveals no sick contacts or anyone else with skin or foot problems. His travel history, however, reveals that he spent 7 days at a tropical beach resort with his family. They had returned home about 1 week before the foot lesion was first noted.

There have been nearly 1,100 measles cases in the United States in the first half of 2019 — more cases of measles than in any year since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. As of July 25, 30 states have reported cases of measles, with outbreaks currently ongoing in five jurisdictions across the country.

The use of cyclosporine, infliximab and anti-IL17 in the treatment of psoriasis is associated with a higher risk for symptomatic urinary tract infection in women, according to a 10-year observational study.

The FDA has approved the fourth biosimilar to adalimumab, adalimumab-bwwd, for all eligible indications of the biologic product, according to a company press release.