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Top 6 most highly read articles from EULAR 2015 Congress
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The European League Against Rheumatism Annual European Congress of Rheumatology, held in Rome earlier this month, produced a large amount of data from researchers from around the globe. Here we present the most popular meeting coverage items on Healio.com/Rheumatology based on readership statistics.
Among the topics that particularly interested our readers were updates on psoriatic arthritis, fibromyalgia study data and outcomes with biosimilars, in addition to research focused on fatigue associated with rheumatic diseases and the impact of vitamin D.
Psoriatic arthritis onset may be linked to trauma in patients with psoriasis
Research presented at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) Annual European Congress of Rheumatology showed physical trauma may be associated with the development of psoriatic arthritis in patients with psoriasis.
A cohort study of 15,416 patients with psoriasis who were exposed to physical trauma were matched with 55,230 unexposed control patients without psoriasis from the Health Improvement Network (THIN) in the U.K. between 1993 and 2013. Patients with history of trauma were randomly matched to as many as five control participants based on age, gender and entry date into the THIN database. Read more.
Actemra gains FDA breakthrough status for systemic sclerosis, phase 2 data presented at EULAR Congress
Actemra has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA for the treatment of systemic sclerosis, and data from a phase 2 study of Actemra in systemic sclerosis by Dinesh Khanna, MD, and colleagues were presented.
“Both in vitro and animal data have suggested an important role of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in pathogenesis of fibrotic diseases. In addition, large observational cohorts in North America and Europe have shown that elevated IL-6 is associated with more severe disease, higher risk of progressive lung fibrosis and greater mortality,” Khanna, one of the FASSCINATE clinical trial investigators, told Healio.com/Rheumatology. Read more.
Fibromyalgia pain may be linked to pro-inflammatory cytokines, oxidized LDL levels
Certain pro-inflammatory cytokines and oxidized low-density lipoprotein may be associated with fibromyalgia pain, according to researchers at the EULAR Annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
Forty-eight patients with fibromyalgia (FM) who met the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 criteria and 43 healthy women were enrolled. The number of tender points was counted, and functional status and symptom severity were assessed using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) in patients with FM. Read more.
Efficacy similar for patients who switched from Remicade to Inflectra
Results presented at the EULAR Annual European Congress of Rheumatology showed that during the course of 11 months, patients experienced similar effectiveness after switching from Remicade to the infliximab biosimilar, Inflectra.
Researchers switched 39 patients from treatment with Remicade (innovator infliximab, INX; Johnson & Johnson) treatment to treatment with Inflectra (infliximab biosimilar, Hospira). Patients were switched after a period of 4.1 years’ treatment with INX, and diagnoses included rheumatoid arthritis (RA), axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, juvenile RA and chronic reactive arthritis. Read more.
Fatigue, disease activity may predict rescue medication need in patients with RA receiving sarilumab
Disease activity and energy levels were predictive of the need for rescue medications in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were treated with sarilumab compared with those treated with placebo, according to research presented recently.
The 1,197 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) comprising the intent-to-treat cohort of the MOBILITY trial were randomly assigned at a 1:1:1 ratio to receive placebo plus methotrexate, 150 mg sarilumab every 2 weeks plus methotrexate or 200 mg sarilumab every 2 weeks plus methotrexate. Patients were assessed at baseline, every 4 weeks between week 2 and week 28, and every 8 weeks through week 52. Read more.
Vitamin D status similar in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, healthy controls
Vitamin D status was often low in the winter in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, but levels were comparable to serum levels found in healthy control participants and were not correlated with disease activity, according to researchers from the University of Gothenburg.
In a study, serum vitamin D levels of 203 patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and 120 healthy control participants residing in Gothenburg, Sweden, were measured in late winter. Read more.