IBD-Associated Arthritis News

Sometimes, the best way to care for a patient is to know one’s own limitations.

Routine, proactive therapeutic drug monitoring for patients receiving biopharmaceuticals for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases is not recommended, according to new points-to-consider published by EULAR.

DESTIN, Fla. — Stepwise interventions, starting with diet and moving on to pharmacotherapies in more severe patients, is essential to managing gastrointestinal complications in scleroderma, a speaker said at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology East.

Joint replacement in patients with inflammatory arthritis is often beset with pitfalls like disease flares and infectious complications, and up until recently, the emergence new treatments were rendering the current guidelines outdated.

Approximately 83% to 88% of Canadian patients with immune-mediated inflammatory disease have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 78% of the general population, according to data published in The Journal of Rheumatology.

Therapeutic drug monitoring, in which serum levels are regularly checked to adjust dose and intervals, is more effective at controlling disease than standard therapy with infliximab, according to data presented at ACR Convergence 2021.

The FDA has designated Cyltezo the first approved interchangeable biosimilar to treat certain inflammatory diseases, allowing pharmacists to substitute it for Humira without the need for the prescriber to alter the prescription.

Enthesitis-related arthritis and a family history of autoimmune disease are key risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease in juvenile idiopathic arthritis, according to data published in Rheumatology.

Healio announced the launch of Rheum and Boards, a quiz-based, online learning resource for rheumatologists, according to a Healio press release.

Providers should avoid monotherapy when treating hidradenitis suppurativa, and instead use a “layered and rotated” approach that also addresses the isolating psychosocial aspects of the disease, noted a speaker here.