Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders News

EULAR has for the first time updated its 2007 recommendations for the management of hand osteoarthritis, including a new warning against treatment with conventional or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. The update was published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Symptomatic, radiographic knee osteoarthritis is independently associated with an increased risk for medically-treated injurious falls among older men, but not women, according to study results published in Arthritis Care and Research.

Body composition-based obesity and sarcopenic obesity, but not sarcopenia itself, are associated with an increased risk for knee osteoarthritis, according to findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.

Osteoporosis is associated with a 1.3-fold increase in the risk for dementia among men, and a 1.2-fold increase among women, according to findings published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Hip injuries, and instances of an individual’s hip “giving way” or buckling, are significantly linked to pain exacerbation in patients with symptomatic hip osteoarthritis, according to data published in Arthritis Care & Research.

The 2018 Rheumatic Disease Report Card: Raising the Grade on Rheumatology Care in America released today by the American College of Rheumatology demonstrates that access to affordable rheumatology care varied considerably from state to state, with most states averaging a “C” grade.

Recently published results showed a strong association with poor physical performance, fatigue and subsequent risk of injurious falls and mobility limitations when low muscle mass was measured by deuterated creatine dilution compared with lean mass assessed by DXA.

We begin with a 24-year-old previously healthy female presenting with gradual worsening — over the last few months — migraine-like headaches accompanied by nausea but no vomiting. She was in a usual state of health when she started getting headaches, that were described as intermittent with a deep ache sensation. The headaches were unilateral and would switch from left to right and sometimes occur between the eyes. The patient described the severity as 8 out of 10. The headaches did not wake her from sleep, and she was unsure of what triggered them. She denied hearing loss, tinnitus, numbness or tingling of extremities, weakness, joint pain, joint swelling or rashes. She reported no new medications.

Pain is the main impetus for seeking medical care among patients with osteoarthritis, with insomnia and depression acting as drivers for increased diversity in the types of health care use, according to recent findings in Arthritis Care & Research.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced fasinumab yielded positive results in a phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of patients with chronic pain from knee or hip osteoarthritis.